initial commit of ebook 30671HEADmain

1 files changed, 11700 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/30671-8.txt b/30671-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..db75c3b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/30671-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11700 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Brownings, by Lilian Whiting
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Brownings
+       Their Life and Art
+
+
+Author: Lilian Whiting
+
+
+
+Release Date: December 14, 2009  [eBook #30671]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BROWNINGS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Stephanie Eason, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from
+digital material generously made available by Internet Archive/Canadian
+Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/toronto)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 30671-h.htm or 30671-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30671/30671-h/30671-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30671/30671-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/browningstheirli00whituoft
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BROWNINGS
+
+Their Life and Art
+
+
+[Illustration: ROBERT BROWNING
+
+_From a drawing made by Field Talfourd, in Rome, 1855_]
+
+
+THE BROWNINGS
+
+Their Life and Art
+
+by
+
+LILIAN WHITING
+
+Author of "The World Beautiful," "Italy
+the Magic Land," "The Spiritual
+Significance," Etc.
+
+Illustrated
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Boston
+Little, Brown, and Company
+1911
+
+Copyright, 1911,
+by Little, Brown, and Company.
+
+All rights reserved
+
+Published, October, 1911
+
+Printers
+S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, U.S.A.
+
+
+
+  INSCRIBED TO
+  ROBERT BARRETT BROWNING
+  (CAVALIERE DELLA CORONA D'ITALIA)
+  PAINTER, SCULPTOR, CONNOISSEUR IN ART
+  WITH ENCHANTING REMEMBRANCES OF HOURS IN "LA TORRE
+  ALL' ANTELLA" AND THE FAITHFUL REGARDS OF
+
+  LILIAN WHITING
+  FLORENCE, ITALY,
+  June, 1911
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+The present volume was initiated in Florence, and, from its first
+inception, invested with the cordial assent and the sympathetic
+encouragement of Robert Barrett Browning. One never-to-be-forgotten day,
+all ethereal light and loveliness, has left its picture in memory, when,
+in company with Mr. Browning and his life-long friend, the Marchesa
+Peruzzi di' Medici (_náta_ Story), the writer of this biography strolled
+with them under the host's orange trees and among the riotous roses of his
+Florentine villa, "La Torre All' Antella," listening to their sparkling
+conversation, replete with fascinating reminiscences. To Mr. Browning the
+tribute of thanks, whose full scope is known to the Recording Angel alone,
+is here offered; and there is the blending of both privilege and duty in
+grateful acknowledgements to Messrs. Smith, Elder, & Company for their
+courtesy in permitting the somewhat liberal drawing on their published
+Letters of both the Brownings, on which reliance had to be based in any
+effort to
+
+  "Call up the buried Past again,"
+
+and construct the story, from season to season, so far as might be, of
+that wonderful interlude of the wedded life of the poets.
+
+Yet any formality of thanks to this house is almost lost sight of in the
+rush of memories of that long and mutually-trusting friendship between the
+late George Murray Smith, the former head of this firm, and Robert
+Browning, a friendship which was one of the choicest treasures in both
+their lives.
+
+To The Macmillan Company, the publishers for both the first and the
+present Lord Tennyson; To Houghton Mifflin Company; to Messrs. Dodd, Mead,
+& Company; to The Cornhill Magazine (to which the writer is indebted for
+some data regarding Browning and Professor Masson); to each and all,
+acknowledgments are offered for their courtesy which has invested with
+added charm a work than which none was ever more completely a labor of
+love.
+
+To Edith, Contessa Rucellai (_náta_ Bronson), whose characteristically
+lovely kindness placed at the disposal of this volume a number of letters
+written by Robert Browning to her mother, Mrs. Arthur Bronson, special
+gratitude is offered.
+
+"Poetry," said Mrs. Browning, "is its own exceeding great reward." Any
+effort, however remote its results from the ideal that haunted the writer,
+to interpret the lives of such transcendent genius and nobleness as those
+of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, must also be its own exceeding
+reward in leading to a passion of pursuit of all that is highest and
+holiest in the life that now is, and in that which is to come.
+
+  LILIAN WHITING
+
+  THE BRUNSWICK, BOSTON
+      Midsummer Days, 1911
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                      PAGE
+CHAPTER I
+
+1812-1833
+
+The Most Exquisite Romance of Modern Life--Ancestry and Youth of
+    Robert Browning--Love of Music--Formative Influences--The
+    Fascination of Byron--A Home "Crammed with Books"--The Spell
+    of Shelley--"Incondita"--Poetic Vocation Definitely
+    Chosen--"Pauline"                                                    1
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+1806-1832
+
+Childhood and Early Youth of Elizabeth Barrett--Hope End--"Summer
+    Snow of Apple-Blossoms"--Her Bower of White Roses--"Living
+    with Visions"--The Malvern Hills--Hugh Stuart Boyd--Love of
+    Learning--"Juvenilia"--Impassioned Devotion to Poetry               16
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+1833-1841
+
+Browning Visits Russia--"Paracelsus"--Recognition of Wordsworth
+    and Landor--"Strafford"--First Visit to Italy--Mrs. Carlyle's
+    Baffled Reading of "Sordello"--Lofty Motif of the Poem--The
+    Universal Problem of Life--Enthusiasm for Italy--The
+    Sibylline Leaves Yet to Unfold                                      26
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+1833-1841
+
+Elizabeth Barrett's Love for the Greek Poets--Lyrical Work--
+    Serious Entrance on Professional Literature--Noble Ideal
+    of Poetry--London Life--Kenyon--First Knowledge of Robert
+    Browning                                                            44
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+1841-1846
+
+"Bells and Pomegranates"--Arnould and Domett--"A Blot in the
+    'Scutcheon"--Macready--Second Visit to Italy--Miss Barrett's
+    Poetic Work--"Colombe's Birthday"--"Lady Geraldine's
+    Courtship"--"Romances and Lyrics"--Browning's First Letter
+    to Miss Barrett--The Poets Meet--Letters of Robert Browning
+    and Elizabeth Barrett--"Loves of the Poets"--Vita Nuova             67
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+1846-1850
+
+Marriage and Italy--"In That New World"--The Haunts of
+    Petrarca--The Magic Land--In Pisa--Vallombrosa--"Un Bel
+    Giro"--Guercino's Angel--Casa Guidi--Birth of Robert Barrett
+    Browning--Bagni di Lucca--"Sonnets from the Portuguese"--The
+    Enchantment of Italy                                                92
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+1850-1855
+
+"Casa Guidi Windows"--Society in Florence--Marchesa d'Ossoli--
+    Browning's Poetic Creed--Villeggiatura in Siena--Venice--
+    Brilliant Life in London--Paris and Milsand--Browning on
+    Shelley--In Florence--Idyllic Days in Bagni di Lucca--Mrs.
+    Browning's Spiritual Outlook--Delightful Winter in Rome--A
+    Poetic Pilgrimage--Harriet Hosmer--Characteristics of Mrs.
+    Browning                                                           115
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+1855-1861
+
+London Life--An Interlude in Paris--"Aurora Leigh"--Florentine
+    Days--"Men and Women"--The Hawthornes--"The Old Yellow
+    Book"--A Summer in Normandy--The Eternal City--The Storys and
+    Other Friends--Lilies of Florence--"It Is Beautiful!"              163
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+1861-1869
+
+The Completed Cycle--Letters to Friends--Browning's Devotion to
+    His Son--Warwick Crescent--"Dramatis Personæ"--London Life--
+    Death of the Poet's Father--Sarianna Browning--Oxford Honors
+    the Poet--Death of Arabel Barrett--Audierne--"The Ring and
+    the Book"                                                          199
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+1869-1880
+
+In Scotland with the Storys--Browning's Conversation--An Amusing
+    Incident--With Milsand at St. Aubin's--"The Red Cotton
+    Night-cap Country"--Robert Barrett Browning's Gift for Art--
+    Alfred Domett ("Waring")--"Balaustion's Adventure"--Browning
+    and Tennyson--"Pacchiarotto"--Visits Jowett at Oxford--
+    Declines Lord Rectorship of St. Andrews--"La Saisiaz"--Italy
+    Revisited--The Dream of Asolo--"Ivanovitch"--Pride in His
+    Son's Success--"Dramatic Idylls"                                   221
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+1880-1888
+
+"Les Charmettes"--Venetian Days--Dr. Hiram Corson--The Browning
+    Society--Oxford Honors Browning--Katherine DeKay Bronson--
+    Honors from Edinburgh--Visit to Professor Masson--Italian
+    Recognition--Nancioni--The Goldoni Sonnet--At St. Moritz--
+    In Palazzo Giustiniani--"Ferishtah's Fancies"--Companionship
+    with His Son--Death of Milsand--Letters to Mrs. Bronson--
+    DeVere Gardens--Palazzo Rezzonico--Sunsets from the Lido--
+    Robert Barrett Browning's Gift in Portraiture                      238
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+1888-1889
+
+"Asolando"--Last Days in DeVere Gardens--Letters of Browning and
+    Tennyson--Venetian Lingerings and Friends--Mrs. Bronson's
+    Choice Circle--Browning's Letters to Mrs. Bronson--Asolo--
+    "In Ruby, Emerald, Chrysopras"--Last Meeting of Browning and
+    Story--In Palazzo Rezzonico--Last Meeting with Dr. Corson--
+    Honored by Westminster Abbey--A Cross of Violets--Choral
+    Music to Mrs. Browning's Poem, "The Sleep"--"And with God Be
+    the Rest!"                                                         269
+
+
+Index                                                                  297
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+_In Photogravure_
+
+                                                                      PAGE
+
+  Robert Browning                                           _Frontispiece_
+    From a drawing by Field Talfourd, Rome, 1855
+
+  Elizabeth Barrett Browning                                            39
+    From a drawing by Field Talfourd, Rome, 1855
+
+_Engravings_
+
+  Busts of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning                         2
+
+  Monument to Michael Angelo, by Vasari                                 80
+    Church of Santa Croce, Florence
+
+  Old Monastery at Vallombrosa                                          98
+
+  The Guardian Angel, Guercino                                         103
+    Church of San Agostino, Fano
+
+  Monument to Dante, by Stefano Ricci                                  108
+    Piazza di Santa Croce, Florence
+
+  Palazzo Vecchio, Florence                                            113
+
+  Statue of Savonarola, by E. Pazzi                                    116
+    Sala dei Cinquecento, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence
+
+  Fresco of Dante, by Giotto                                           121
+    The Bargello, Florence
+
+  Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence (known as
+  the Duomo)                                                           126
+
+  The Ponte Vecchio and the Arno, Florence                             142
+
+  Casa Guidi                                                           146
+
+  The Clasped Hands of the Brownings                                   153
+    Cast in bronze from the model taken by Harriet Hosmer in
+    Rome, 1853
+
+  The Campagna and Ruins of the Claudian Aqueducts, Rome               156
+
+  The Coronation of the Virgin, by Filippo Lippi                       166
+    Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence
+
+  Andrea del Sarto. Portrait of the Artist and his Wife                170
+    Pitti Gallery, Florence
+
+  Equestrian Statue of Ferdinando de' Medici, by Giovanni
+  da Bologna                                                           174
+    Piazza dell' Annunziata, Florence
+
+  Villa Petraja, near Florence                                         178
+
+  Church of San Miniato, near Florence                                 182
+
+  The Palazzo Barberini, Via Quattro Fontane, Rome                     188
+
+  The English Cemetery, Florence                                       197
+
+  Tomb of Elizabeth Barrett Browning                                   200
+
+  Kate Field                                                           208
+    From the portrait by Elihu Vedder, Florence, 1860
+
+  The Pallazzo Riccardi, Florence                                      214
+
+  Bust of Robert Browning, by his Son                                  226
+
+  Portrait of Robert Browning in 1882, by his Son                      242
+
+  Church of San Lorenzo, Florence                                      246
+
+  Portrait of Robert Barrett Browning, as a Child, 1859                263
+
+  Portrait of Robert Browning, by George Frederick Watts, R.A.         270
+
+  Mrs. Arthur Bronson, by Ellen Montalba, in Asolo                     274
+
+  Miss Edith Bronson, (Comtessa Rucellai)                              280
+
+  Portrait of Professor Hiram Corson, by J. Colin Forbes, R.A.         290
+
+  Palazzo Rezzonico, Venice                                            294
+
+  Engraved Facsimile of a letter from Robert Browning to
+  Professor Hiram Corson                                               260
+
+
+
+
+  THE BROWNINGS
+  THEIR LIFE AND ART
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+1812-1833
+
+  "Allons! after the Great Companions! and to belong to them!"
+
+  "To know the universe itself as a road--as many roads--as
+  roads for travelling souls."
+
+
+THE MOST EXQUISITE ROMANCE OF MODERN LIFE--ANCESTRY AND YOUTH OF ROBERT
+    BROWNING--LOVE OF MUSIC--FORMATIVE INFLUENCES--THE FASCINATION OF
+    BYRON--A HOME "CRAMMED WITH BOOKS"--THE SPELL OF SHELLEY--
+    "INCONDITA"--POETIC VOCATION DEFINITELY CHOSEN--"PAULINE."
+
+
+Such a very page _de Contes_ is the life of the wedded poets, Robert and
+Elizabeth Barrett Browning, that it is difficult to realize that this
+immortal idyl of Poetry, Genius, and Love was less than fifteen years in
+duration, out of his seventy-seven, and her fifty-five years of life. It
+is a story that has touched the entire world
+
+          "... with mystic gleams,
+  Like fragments of forgotten dreams,"
+
+this story of beautiful associations and friendships, of artistic
+creation, and of the entrance on a wonderful realm of inspiration and
+loveliness. At the time of their marriage he was in his thirty-fifth, and
+she in her forty-first year, although she is described as looking so
+youthful that she was like a girl, in her slender, flower-like grace; and
+he lived on for twenty-eight years after
+
+  "Clouds and darkness
+  Fell upon Camelot,"
+
+with the death of his "Lyric Love." The story of the most beautiful
+romance that the world has ever known thus falls into three distinctive
+periods,--that of the separate life of each up to the time of their
+marriage; their married life, with its scenic setting in the enchantment
+of Italy; and his life after her withdrawal from earthly scenes. The story
+is also of duplex texture; for the outer life, rich in associations,
+travel, impressions, is but the visible side of the life of great creative
+art. A delightful journey is made, but its record is not limited to the
+enjoyment of friends and place; a poem is written whose charm and power
+persist through all the years.
+
+
+[Illustration: BUSTS OF ROBERT AND ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
+
+Made in 1861 by William Wetmore Story]
+
+
+No adequate word could be written of the Brownings that did not take
+account of this twofold life of the poets. It is almost unprecedented that
+the power and resplendence and beauty of the life of art should find, in
+the temporal environment, so eminent a correspondence of beauty as it did
+with Robert and Elizabeth Browning. Not that they were in any wise exempt
+from sorrow and pain; the poet, least of all, would choose to be
+translated, even if he might, to some enchanted region remote from all the
+mingled experiences of humanity; it is the common lot of destiny, with its
+prismatic blending of failure and success, of purpose and achievement, of
+hope and defeat, of love and sorrow, out of which the poet draws his song.
+He would not choose
+
+  "That jar of violet wine set in the air,
+  That palest rose sweet in the night of life,"
+
+to the exclusion of the common experiences of the day.
+
+  "Who never ate his bread in sorrow,
+    Who never spent the darksome hours
+  Weeping, and watching for the morrow,
+    He knows you not, ye unseen Powers."
+
+But to those who, poets or otherwise, see life somewhat in the true
+proportion of its lasting relations, events are largely transmuted into
+experiences, and are realized in their extended relations. The destiny of
+the Brownings led them into constantly picturesque surroundings; and the
+force and manliness of his nature, the tender sweetness and playful
+loveliness of hers, combined with their vast intellectual range, their
+mutual genius for friendships, their devotion to each other and to their
+son, their reverence for their art, and their lofty and noble spirituality
+of nature,--all united to produce this exquisite and unrivaled romance of
+life,--
+
+  "A Beauty passing the earth's store."
+
+The rapture of the poet's dream pervaded every experience.
+
+  "O Life, O Poetry,
+  Which means life in life."
+
+The transmutation of each into the other, both Life and Poetry, as
+revealed in their lives, is something as exceptional as it is beautiful in
+the world's history.
+
+It is only to those who live for something higher than merely personal
+ends, that the highest happiness can come; and the aim of these wedded
+poets may well be read in the lines from "Aurora Leigh":
+
+      "... Beloved, let us love so well,
+  Our work shall still be better for our love,
+  And still our love be sweeter for our work,
+  And both commended, for the sake of each,
+  By all true workers and true lovers born."
+
+
+In the ancestry of Robert Browning there was nothing especially
+distinctive, although it is representative of the best order of people; of
+eminently reputable life, of moderate means, of culture, and of assured
+intelligence. It is to the Brownings of Dorsetshire, who were large
+manor-owners in the time of Henry VII, that the poet's family is traced.
+Robert Browning, the grandfather of the poet, was a clerk in the Bank of
+England, a position he obtained through the influence of the Earl of
+Shaftesbury. Entering on this work at the age of twenty, he served
+honorably for fifty years, and was promoted to the position of the Bank
+Stock office, a highly responsible place, that brought him in constant
+contact with the leading financiers of the day. Born in 1749, he had
+married, in 1778, Margaret Tittle, the inheritor of some property in the
+West Indies, where she was born of English parentage. The second Robert,
+the father of the poet, was the son of this union. In his early youth he
+was sent out to take charge of his mother's property, and his grandson,
+Robert Barrett Browning, relates with pardonable pride how he resigned the
+post, which was a lucrative one, because he could not tolerate the system
+of slave labor prevailing there. By this act he forfeited all the estate
+designed for him, and returned to England to face privation and to make
+his own way. He, too, became a clerk in the Bank of England, and in 1811,
+at the age of thirty, married Sarah Anna Wiedemann, the daughter of a
+ship-owner in Dundee. Mr. Wiedemann was a German of Hamburg, who had
+married a Scotch lady; and thus, on his maternal side, the poet had
+mingled Scotch and German ancestry. The new household established itself
+in Southampton Street, Camberwell, and there were born their two children,
+Robert, on May 7, 1812, and on January 7, 1814, Sarah Anna, who came to be
+known as Sarianna through all her later life.
+
+The poet's father was not only an efficient financier, but he was also a
+man of scholarly culture and literary tastes. He was a lover of the
+classics, and was said to have known by heart the first book of the Iliad,
+and the Odes of Horace. There is a legend that he often soothed his little
+son to sleep by humming to him an ode of Anacreon. He wrote verse, he was
+a very clever draughtsman, and he was a collector of rare books and
+prints. Mr. W. J. Stillman, in his "Autobiography of a Journalist," refers
+to the elder Browning, whom he knew in his later years, as "a serene,
+untroubled soul,... as gentle as a gentle woman, a man to whom, it seemed
+to me, no moral conflict could ever have arisen to cloud his frank
+acceptance of life as he found it come to him.... His unworldliness had
+not a flaw." In Browning's poem entitled "Development" (in "Asolando") he
+gives this picture of his father and of his own childhood:
+
+  "My Father was a scholar and knew Greek.
+  When I was five years old, I asked him once
+  'What do you read about?'
+                           'The siege of Troy.'
+  'What is a siege, and what is Troy?'
+                                      Whereat
+  He piled up chairs and tables for a town,
+  Set me a-top for Priam, called our cat
+  --Helen, enticed away from home (he said)
+  By wicked Paris, who couched somewhere close
+  Under the footstool....
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  This taught me who was who and what was what;
+  So far I rightly understood the case
+  At five years old; a huge delight it proved
+  And still proves--thanks to that instructor sage
+  My Father...."
+
+
+The poet's mother was a true gentlewoman, characterized by fervent
+religious feeling, delicacy of perception, and a great love for music. She
+was reared in the Scottish kirk, and her husband in the Church of
+England, but they both connected themselves after their marriage with an
+"Independent" body that held their meetings in York Street, where the
+Robert Browning Hall now stands. They were, however, greatly attached to
+the Rev. Henry Melvill (later Canon at St. Paul's), whose evening service
+they habitually attended. While the poet's mother had little training in
+music, she was a natural musician, and was blessed with that keen,
+tremulous susceptibility to musical influence that was so marked a trait
+in her son. William Sharp pictures a late afternoon, when, playing softly
+to herself in the twilight, she was startled to hear a sound in the room.
+"Glancing around, she beheld a little white figure distinctly outlined
+against an oak bookcase, and could just discern two large wistful eyes
+looking earnestly at her. The next moment the child had sprung into her
+arms, sobbing passionately at he knew not what, but, as his paroxysm of
+emotion subsided, whispering over and over,'Play! Play!'"
+
+The elder Browning was an impassioned lover of medieval legend and story.
+He was deeply familiar with Paracelsus, with Faust, and with many of the
+Talmudic tales. His library was large and richly stored,--the house,
+indeed, "crammed with books," in which the boy browsed about at his own
+will. It was the best of all possible educations, this atmosphere of
+books. And the wealth of old engravings and prints fascinated the child.
+He would sit among these before a glowing fire, while from the adjoining
+room floated strains "of a wild Gaelic lament, with its insistent falling
+cadences." It is recorded as his mother's chief happiness,--"her hour of
+darkness and solitude and music." Of such fabric are poetic impressions
+woven. The atmosphere was what Emerson called the "immortal ichor." The
+boy was companioned by the "liberating gods." Something mystic and
+beautiful beckoned to him, and incantations, unheard by the outer sense,
+thronged about him, pervading the air. The lad began to recast in English
+verse the Odes of Horace. From his school, on holiday afternoons, he
+sought a lonely spot, elm-shaded, where he could dimly discern London in
+the distance, with the gleam of sunshine on the golden cross of St.
+Paul's,--lying for hours on the grass whence, perchance, he
+
+  "Saw distant gates of Eden gleam
+  And did not dream it was a dream."
+
+Meantime the boy read Junius, Voltaire, Walpole's Letters, the "Emblems"
+of Quarles (a book that remained as a haunting influence all his life),
+and Mandeville's "Fable of the Bees." The first book of his own purchase
+was a copy of Ossian's poems, and his initial effort in literary creation
+was in likeness of the picturesque imaginations that appealed with
+peculiar fascination to his mind.
+
+"The world of books is still the world," wrote Mrs. Browning in "Aurora
+Leigh," and this was the world of Robert Browning's early life. The
+genesis of many of his greatest poems can be traced directly to this
+atmosphere of books, and their constant use and reference in his
+childhood. Literature and life, are, indeed, so absolutely interpenetrated
+and so interdependent that they can almost invariably be contemplated as
+cause and effect, each reacting upon the other in determining sequences.
+By the magic of some spiritual alchemy, reading is transmuted into the
+qualities that build up character, and these qualities, in turn, determine
+the continued choice of books, so that selection and result perpetuate
+themselves, forming an unceasing contribution to the nature of life. If
+with these qualities is united the kindling imagination, the gift that
+makes its possessor the creative artist, the environment of books and
+perpetual reference to them act as a torch that ignites the divine fire.
+Browning's early stimulus owes much, not only to the book-loving father,
+but to his father's brother, his uncle Reuben Browning, who was a
+classical scholar and who took great interest in the boy. Preserved to the
+end of the poet's life was a copy of the Odes of Horace, in translation,
+given to him as a lad of twelve, with his uncle's autograph inscription on
+the fly-leaf. This was the translation made by Christopher Smart, whose
+"Song of David" soon became one of the boy's favorites, and it is curious
+to trace how, more than sixty years later, Browning embodied Smart in his
+"Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in their Day," as one with
+whom
+
+            "... truth found vent
+  In words for once with you...."
+
+
+Browning, with the poet's instant insight, read the essential story of his
+boyhood into the lines:
+
+          "... Dreaming, blindfold led
+  By visionary hand, did soul's advance
+  Precede my body's, gain inheritance
+  Of fact by fancy...?"
+
+
+No transcription of the poet's childhood could even suggest the fortunate
+influences surrounding him that did not emphasize the rare culture and
+original power of his father. The elder Browning was familiar with old
+French and with both Spanish and Italian literature. "His wonderful store
+of information might really be compared to an inexhaustible mine," said
+one who knew him well.
+
+It is easy to see how out of such an atmosphere the future poet drew
+unconsciously the power to weave his "magic web" of such poems as the
+"Parleyings," "Abt Vogler," "Ferishtah's Fancies," and was lured on into
+that realm of marvelous creation out of which sprang his transcendent
+masterpiece, "The Ring and the Book."
+
+The elder Browning's impassioned love of books was instanced by the
+curious fact that he could go in the dark to his library, and out of many
+hundreds of volumes select some particular one to which conversational
+reference had incidentally been made regarding some point which he wished
+to verify. He haunted all the old book-stalls in London, and knew their
+contents better than did their owners.
+
+Books are so intimately associated with the very springs of both character
+and achievement that no adequate idea of the formative influences of the
+life and poetry of Robert Browning could be gained without familiarity
+with this most determining and conspicuous influence of his boyhood. The
+book with which a man has lived becomes an essential factor in his growth.
+"None of us yet know," said Ruskin, "for none of us have yet been taught
+in early youth, what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thought,
+proof against all adversity, bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble
+histories, faithful sayings, treasure-houses of precious and restful
+thoughts,... houses built without hands for our souls to live in." These
+houses for the soul, built in thought, will be transposed into outer form
+and semblance.
+
+There is a nebulous but none the less pernicious tradition that great
+literature is formidable, and presents itself as a task rather than as a
+privilege to the reader. Devotion to the best books has been regarded as
+something of a test of mental endurance, for which the recompense, if not
+the antidote, must be sought in periods of indulgence in the frivolous and
+the sensational. Never was there a more fatal misconception. It is the
+inconsequential, the crude, the obtuse, that are dull in literature, as in
+life; and stupidity in various languages might well be entitled to rank
+among the Seven Deadly Sins of Dante. Even in the greatest literature
+there is much that the child may easily learn to appreciate and to love.
+
+  "Great the Master
+  And sweet the Magic"
+
+that opens the golden door of literary stimulus. Books are to the mind as
+is food to the body. Emerson declares that the poet is the only teller of
+news, and Mrs. Browning pronounced poets as
+
+  "The only truth-tellers now left to God."
+
+Familiarity with noble thought and beautiful expression influences the
+subconscious nature to an incalculable degree, and leads "the spirit
+finely touched" on "to all fine issues."
+
+Browning lived in this stimulating atmosphere. He warmed his hands at the
+divine fire; and the fact that all this richness of resource stimulated
+rather than stifled him is greatly to the credit of his real power.
+Favorable surroundings and circumstances did not serve him as a cushion on
+which to go to sleep, but rather as the pedestal on which he might climb
+to loftier altitudes. It was no lotus-eating experience into which the lad
+was lulled, but the vital activity of the life of creative thought. The
+Heavenly Powers are not invariably, even if frequently, sought in sorrow
+only, and in the mournful midnight hours. There are natures that grow by
+affluence as well as by privation, and that develop their best powers in
+sunshine.
+
+"Even in a palace life can be well lived," said Marcus Aurelius. The
+spirit formed to dwell in the starry spaces is not allured to the mere
+enjoyment of the senses, even when material comfort and intellectual
+luxuries may abound. Not that the modest abundance of the elder Browning's
+books and pictures could take rank as intellectual luxury. It was
+stimulus, not satiety, that these suggested.
+
+Pictures and painters had their part, too, in the unconscious culture that
+surrounded the future poet. London in that day afforded little of what
+would be called art; the National Gallery was not opened until Browning
+was in his young manhood; the Tate and other modern galleries were then
+undreamed of. But, to the appropriating temperament, one picture may do
+more than a city full of galleries might for another, and to the small
+collection of some three or four hundred paintings in the Dulwich Gallery,
+Browning was indebted for great enjoyment, and for the art that fostered
+his sympathetic appreciation. In after years he referred to his gratitude
+for being allowed its privileges when under the age (fourteen) at which
+these were supposed to be granted. Small as was the collection, it was
+representative of the Italian and Spanish, the French and the Dutch
+schools, as well as of the English, and the boy would fix on some one
+picture and sit before it for an hour, lost in its suggestion. It was the
+more imaginative art that enchained him. In later years, speaking of these
+experiences in a letter to Miss Barrett, he wrote of his ecstatic
+contemplation of "those two Guidos, the wonderful Rembrandt's 'Jacob's
+Vision,' such a Watteau...." An old engraving from Correggio, in his
+father's home, was one of the sources of inspiration of Browning's
+boyhood. The story fascinated him; he never tired of asking his father to
+repeat it, and something of its truth so penetrated into his consciousness
+that in later years he had the old print hung in his room that it might be
+before him as he wrote. It became to him, perhaps, one of
+
+            "the unshaped images that lie
+  Within my mind's cave."
+
+The profound significance of the picture evidently haunted him, as is made
+evident by a passage in "Pauline" that opens:
+
+  "But I must never grieve whom wing can waft
+  Far from such thoughts--as now. Andromeda!
+  And she is with me; years roll, I shall change,
+  But change can touch her not--so beautiful
+  With her fixed eyes...."
+
+Is there gained another glimpse of Browning's boyhood in those lines in
+"Pauline"?:
+
+  "I am made up of an intensest life,
+  Of a most clear idea of consciousness
+  Of self, distinct from all its qualities,
+  From all affections, passions, feelings, powers."
+
+
+The various and complex impressions, influences, and shaping factors of
+destiny that any biographer discerns in the formative years of his subject
+are as indecipherable as a palimpsest, and as little to be classified as
+the contents of Pandora's box; nor is it on record that the man himself
+can look into his own history and rightly appraise the relative values of
+these. Nothing, certainly, could be more remote from the truth than the
+reading of autobiographic significance into any stray line a poet may
+write; for imagination is frequently more real than reality. Yet many of
+the creations of after life may trace their germination to some incident
+or impression. William Sharp offers a beautiful and interesting instance
+of one of these when he ascribes the entrancing fantasy of "The Flight of
+the Duchess" to a suggestion made on the poet's mind as a child on a Guy
+Fawkes day, when he followed across the fields a woman singing a strange
+song, whose refrain was: "Following the Queen of the Gypsies, O!" The
+haunting line took root in his memory and found its inflorescence in that
+memorable poem.
+
+It was not conducive to poetic fancy when the lad was placed in the school
+of a Mr. Ready, at Peckham, where he solaced himself for the rules and
+regulations which he abhorred by writing little plays, and persuading his
+school-fellows to act in them with him.
+
+Browning's first excursion into Shelley's poems, brought home to him one
+night as a gift from his mother, was in one of the enchanting evenings of
+May; where, at the open window by which he sat, there floated in the
+melody of two nightingales, one in a laburnum, "heavy with its weight of
+gold," and the other in a copper-beech, at the opposite side of the
+garden. Such an hour mirrors itself unconsciously in a poet's memory, and
+affords, in future years, "such stuff as dreams are made of."
+
+Byron, who, as Mazzini says, "led the genius of Britain on a pilgrimage
+throughout all Europe," stamped an impress upon the youthful Browning that
+may be traced throughout his entire life. There was something in the
+genius of Byron that acted as an enormous force on the nature in response
+to it, that transformed nebulous and floating ideals and imaginings into
+hope and resolution, that burned away barriers and revealed truth. By its
+very nature influence is determined as much by the receiver as by the
+inspirer, and if a light is applied to a torch, the torch, too, must be
+prepared to ignite, or there will be no blaze.
+
+  "A deft musician does the breeze become
+    Whenever an Æolian harp it finds;
+  Hornpipe and hurdygurdy both are dumb
+    Unto the most musicianly of winds."
+
+
+The fire of Byron, the spirituality of Shelley, illuminated that world of
+drift and dream in which Robert Browning dwelt; and while Shelley, with
+his finer spirit, his glorious, impassioned imagination,
+
+  "A creature of impetuous breath,"
+
+incited poetic ardors and unmeasured rapture of vision, Byron penetrated
+his soul with a certain effective energy that awakened in him creative
+power. The spell of Shelley's poetry acted upon Browning as a vision
+revealed of beauty and radiance. For Shelley himself, who, as Tennyson
+said, "did yet give the world another heart and new pulses," Browning's
+feeling was even more intense.
+
+In the analysis of Shelley's poetic nature Browning offers the critical
+reader a key to his own. He asserts that it is the presence of the highest
+faculty, even though less developed, that gives rank to nature, rather
+than a lower faculty more developed. Although it was in later years that
+the impression Shelley made upon his boyhood found adequate expression in
+his noted essay, the spell reflected itself in "Pauline," and is to be
+distinctly traced in many of his poems throughout his entire life. He was
+aware from the first of that peculiarly kindling quality in Shelley, the
+flash of life in his work:
+
+  "He spurreth men, he quickeneth
+       To splendid strife."
+
+
+Under the title of "Incondita" was collected a group of the juvenile
+verses of Robert Browning, whose special claim to interest is in the
+revelation of the impress made upon the youth by Byron and Shelley.
+
+Among the early friends of the youthful poet were Alfred Domett (the
+"Waring" of his future poem), and Joseph Arnould, who became a celebrated
+judge in India.
+
+With Browning there was never any question about his definite vocation as
+a poet. "Pauline" was published in 1833, before he had reached his
+twenty-first birthday. Rejected by publishers, it was brought out at the
+expense of his aunt, Mrs. Silverthorne; and his father paid for the
+publication of "Paracelsus," "Sordello," and for the first eight parts of
+"Bells and Pomegranates." On the appearance of "Pauline," it was reviewed
+by Rev. William Johnson Fox, as the "work of a poet and a genius." Allan
+Cunningham and other reviewers gave encouraging expressions. The design
+of "Pauline" is that spiritual drama to which Browning was always
+temperamentally drawn. It is supposed to be the confessions and
+reminiscences of a dying man, and while it is easy to discern its
+crudeness and inconsistencies, there are in it, too, many detached
+passages of absolute and permanent value. As this:
+
+  "Sun-treader, life and light be thine for ever!
+  Thou art gone from us; years go by and spring
+  Gladdens, and the young earth is beautiful,
+  Yet thy songs come not...."
+
+
+Mr. Browning certainly gave hostages to poetic art when he produced
+"Pauline," in which may be traced the same conceptions of life as those
+more fully and clearly presented in "Paracelsus" and "Sordello." It
+embodies the conviction which is the very essence and vital center of all
+Browning's work--that ultimate success is attained through partial
+failures. From first to last Browning regards life as an adventure of the
+soul, which sinks, falls, rises, recovers itself, relapses into
+faithlessness to its higher powers, yet sees the wrong and aims to
+retrieve it; gropes through darkness to light; and though "tried,
+troubled, tempted," never yields to alien forces and ignominious failure.
+The soul, being divine, must achieve divinity at last. That is the
+crystallization of the message of Browning.
+
+The poem "Pauline," lightly as Mr. Browning himself seemed in after life
+to regard it, becomes of tremendous importance in the right approach to
+the comprehension of his future work. It reveals to us in what manner the
+youthful poet discerned "the Gleam." Like Tennyson, he felt "the magic of
+Merlin,"--of that spirit of the poetic ideal that bade him follow.
+
+  "The Master whisper'd
+  'Follow The Gleam.'"
+
+And what unguessed sweetness and beauty of life and love awaited the poet
+in the unfolding years!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+1806-1832
+
+  "Here's the garden she walked across.
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Roses ranged in a valiant row,
+  I will never think she passed you by!"
+
+
+CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YOUTH OF ELIZABETH BARRETT--HOPE END--"SUMMER SNOW OF
+    APPLE-BLOSSOMS"--HER BOWER OF WHITE ROSES--"LIVING WITH VISIONS"--THE
+    MALVERN HILLS--HUGH STUART BOYD--LOVE OF LEARNING--"JUVENILIA"--
+    IMPASSIONED DEVOTION TO POETRY.
+
+
+The literature of childhood presents nothing more beautiful than the
+records of the early years of Elizabeth Barrett. Fragmentary though they
+be, yet, gathered here and there, they fall into a certain consecutive
+unity, from which one may construct a mosaic-like picture of the daily
+life of the little girl who was born on March 6, 1806, in Coxhoe Hall,
+Durham, whence the family soon removed to Hope End, a home of stately
+beauty and modest luxury. There were brothers to the number of eight; and
+two sisters, Henrietta and Arabel, all younger than herself. Edward, the
+eldest son, especially cared for Elizabeth, holding her in tender and
+almost reverential love, and divining, almost from his infancy, her
+exquisite gifts. Apparently, the eldest sister was also greatly beloved by
+the whole troop of the younger brothers,--Charles, Samuel, George, Henry,
+Alfred, and the two younger, who were named Septimus and Octavius.
+
+With three daughters and eight sons, the household did not lack in
+merriment and overflowing life; and while the little Elizabeth was born
+to love books and dreams, and assimilated learning as naturally as she
+played with her dolls, she was no prodigy, set apart because of fantastic
+qualities, but an eager, earnest little maid, who, although she read Homer
+at eight years of age, yet read him with her doll clasped closely in one
+hand, and who wrote her childish rhymes as unconsciously as a bird sings.
+It is a curious coincidence that this love of the Greeks, as to history,
+literature, and mythology, characterized the earliest childhood of both
+Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett. Pope's Homer was the childish
+favorite of each. "The Greeks were my demigods," she herself said, in
+later life, of her early years, "and haunted me out of Pope's Homer, until
+I dreamt more of Agamemnon than of Moses the black pony."
+
+The house at Hope End has been described by Lady Carmichael as "a
+luxurious home standing in a lovely park, among trees and sloping hills,"
+and the earliest account that has been preserved of the little girl
+reveals her sitting on a hassock, propped against the wall, in a lofty
+room called "Elizabeth's chamber," with a stained glass oriel window
+through which golden gleams of light fell, lingering on the long curls
+that drooped over her face as she sat absorbed in a book. She was also an
+eager worker in her garden, the children all being given a plot to
+cultivate for themselves, and Elizabeth won special fame for her bower of
+white roses.
+
+There are few data about the parents of Elizabeth Barrett, and the legal
+name, Moulton-Barrett, by which she signed her marriage register and by
+which her father is commonly known, has been a source of some confused
+statements. Her father, Edward Barrett Moulton, came into an inheritance
+of property by which he was required to add the name of Barrett again,
+hyphenating it, and was thus known as Edward Barrett Moulton-Barrett. He
+married Mary Graham Clarke, a native of Newcastle-on-the-Tyne, a woman of
+gentle loveliness, who died on October 1, 1828. Mr. Moulton-Barrett lived
+until 1860, his death occurring only a year before that of his famous
+daughter, who was christened Elizabeth Barrett Moulton, and who thus
+became, after her father's added name, Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett,
+although, except when a legal signature was necessary, she signed her name
+as Elizabeth Barrett. The family are still known by the hyphenated name;
+and Mrs. Browning's namesake niece, a very scholarly and charming young
+woman, now living in Rome, is known as Elizabeth Moulton-Barrett. She is
+the daughter of Mrs. Browning's youngest brother, Alfred, and her mother,
+who is still living, is the original of Mrs. Browning's poem, "A
+Portrait." While Miss Moulton-Barrett never saw her aunt (having been born
+after her death), she is said to resemble Mrs. Browning both in
+temperament and character. By a curious coincidence the Barrett family,
+like the Brownings, had been for generations the owners of estates in the
+West Indies, and it is said that Elizabeth Barrett was the first child of
+their family to be born in England for more than a hundred years.
+
+Her father, though born in Jamaica, was brought to England as a young
+child, and he was the ward of Chief Baron Lord Abinger. He was sent to
+Harrow, and afterwards to Cambridge, but he did not wait to finish his
+university course, and married when young. One of his sisters was painted
+by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and this portrait is now in the possession of
+Octavius Moulton-Barrett, Esq., of the Isle of Wight.
+
+Elizabeth's brother Edward was but two years her junior. It was he who was
+drowned at Torquay, almost before her eyes, and who is commemorated in her
+"De Profundis." Of the other brothers only three lived to manhood. When
+Elizabeth was three years of age, the family removed to Hope End in
+Herefordshire, a spacious and stately house with domes and minarets
+embowered in a grove of ancient oaks. It was a place calculated to appeal
+to the imagination of a child, and in later years she wrote of it:
+
+  "Green the land is where my daily
+    Steps in jocund childhood played,
+  Dimpled close with hill and valley,
+    Dappled very close with shade,--
+  Summer-snow of apple-blossoms,
+    Running up from glade to glade."
+
+Here all her girlhood was passed, and it was in the garden of Hope End
+that she stood, holding up an apron filled with flowers, when that lovely
+picture was painted representing her as a little girl of nine or ten years
+of age. Much of rather apochryphal myth and error has grown up about Mrs.
+Browning's early life. However gifted, she was in no wise abnormal, and
+she galloped on Moses, her black pony, through the Herefordshire lanes,
+and offered pagan sacrifices to some imaginary Athene, "with a bundle of
+sticks from the kitchen fire and a match begged from an indulgent
+housemaid." In a letter to Richard Hengist Home, under date of October 5,
+1843, in reply to a request of his for data for a biographical sketch of
+her for "The New Spirit of the Age," she wrote:
+
+    "... And then as to stories, mine amounts to the knife-grinder's, with
+    nothing at all for a catastrophe. A bird in a cage would have as good
+    a story. Most of my events, and nearly all my intense pleasures, have
+    passed in my thoughts. I wrote verses--as I dare say many have done
+    who never wrote any poems--very early, at eight years of age, and
+    earlier. But, what is less common, the early fancy turned into a will,
+    and remained with me, and from that day to this, poetry has been a
+    distinct object with me,--an object to read, think, and live for."
+
+
+When she was eleven or twelve, she amused herself by writing a great epic
+in four books, called "The Battle of Marathon," which possessed her fancy.
+Her father took great pride in this, and, "bent upon spoiling me," she
+laughingly said in later years, had fifty copies of this childish
+achievement printed, and there is one in the British Museum library
+to-day. No creator of prose romance could invent more curious coincidences
+than those of the similar trend of fancy that is seen between the
+childhood of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett. Her "Battle of
+Marathon" revealed how the Greek stories enchanted her fancy, and how
+sensitive was her ear in the imitation of the rhythm caught from Pope.
+This led her to the delighted study of Greek, that she might read its
+records at first hand; and Greek drew her into Latin, and from this
+atmosphere of classic lore, which, after all, is just as interesting to
+the average child as is the (too usual) juvenile pabulum, she drew her
+interest in thought and dream. The idyllic solitude in which she lived
+fostered all these mental excursions. "I had my fits of Pope and Byron and
+Coleridge," she has related, "and read Greek as hard under the trees as
+some of your Oxonians in the Bodleian; gathered visions from Plato and the
+dramatists, and ate and drank Greek.... Do you know the Malvern Hills? The
+Hills of Piers Plowman's Visions? They seem to me my native hills.
+Beautiful, beautiful they were, and I lived among them till I had passed
+twenty by several years."
+
+Mr. Moulton-Barrett was one of the earliest of social reformers. So much
+has been said, and, alas! with too much justice, it must be conceded, of
+his eccentric tyranny, his monomania,--for it amounted to that, in
+relation to the marriage of any of his children regarding which his
+refusal was insanely irrational,--that it is pleasant to study him for a
+moment in his more normal life. In Ledbury, the nearest village, he would
+hold meetings for the untaught people, read and pray with them, and this
+at a period when for a man of wealth to concern himself in social
+betterment was almost unknown. He was truly "the friend of the unfriended
+poor," and by his side, with wondering, upturned, childish eyes, was the
+little Elizabeth, an ardent and sympathetic companion. Until quite
+recently there were still living those who remembered Mr. Barrett as this
+intelligent and active helper; and in the parish church is a monument to
+him, by the side of a gloriously decorated tomb of the fourteenth century,
+with an inscription to his memory that vividly recalls the work of one who
+strove to revive the simple faith in God that has always, in all nations
+and in all centuries, met every real need of life.
+
+Mrs. Barrett, a sweet and gentle woman, without special force of
+character, died when Elizabeth was but twenty years of age; and it was
+some five years before her mother's death that Elizabeth met with the
+accident, from the fall from her saddle when trying to mount her pony,
+that caused her life-long delicacy of health. Her natural buoyancy of
+spirits, however, never failed, and she was endowed with a certain
+resistless energy which is quite at variance with the legendary traditions
+that she was a nervous invalid.
+
+Hardly less than Browning in his earliest youth, was Elizabeth Barrett
+"full of an intensest life." Her Italian master one day told her that
+there was an unpronounceable English word that expressed her exactly, but
+which, as he could not give in English, he would express in his own
+tongue,--_testa lunga_. Relating this to Mr. Browning in one of her
+letters, she says: "Of course the signor meant headlong!--and now I have
+had enough to tame me, and might be expected to stand still in my stall.
+But you see I do not. Headlong I was at first, and headlong I
+continue,--precipitately rushing forward through all manner of nettles and
+briers instead of keeping the path; guessing at the meaning of unknown
+words instead of looking into the dictionary,--tearing open letters, and
+never untying a string,--and expecting everything to be done in a minute,
+and the thunder to be as quick as the lightning."
+
+Impetuous, vivacious, with an inimitable sense of humor, full of
+impassioned vitality,--this was the real Elizabeth Barrett, whose
+characteristics were in no wise changed during her entire life. Always was
+she
+
+  "A creature of impetuous breath,"
+
+full of vivacious surprises, and witty repartee.
+
+Hope End was in the near vicinity of Eastnor Castle, a country seat of the
+Somersets; it is to-day one of the present homes of Lady Henry Somerset,
+and there are family records of long, sunny days that the young girl-poet
+passed at the castle, walking on the terraces that lead down to the still
+water, or lying idly in the boat as the ripples of the little lake lapped
+against the reeds and rushes that grew on the banks. In the castle library
+is preserved to-day an autograph copy of the first volume of Elizabeth
+Barrett's poems, published when she was twenty, and containing that
+didactic "Essay on Mind" written when she was but seventeen, and of which
+she afterward said that it had "a pertness and a pedantry which did not
+even then belong to the character of the author," and which she regretted,
+she went on to say, "even more than the literary defectiveness." This
+volume was presented by her to a member of the Somerset family whose name
+is inscribed over that of her own signature.
+
+During these years Hugh Stuart Boyd, the blind scholar, was living in
+Great Malvern, and one of Miss Barrett's greatest pleasures was to visit
+and read Greek with him. He was never her "tutor," in the literal sense,
+as has so widely been asserted, for her study of Greek was made with her
+brother Edward, under his tutor, a Mr. MacSweeney; but she read and
+talked of Greek literature (especially of the Christian poets) with him,
+and she loved to record her indebtedness to him "for many happy hours."
+She wrote of him as one "enthusiastic for the good and the beautiful, and
+one of the most simple and upright of human beings." The memory of her
+discussions with him is embalmed in her poem, "Wine of Cyprus," which was
+addressed to him:
+
+  "And I think of those long mornings
+    Which my thought goes far to seek,
+  When, betwixt the folio's turnings,
+    Solemn flowed the rhythmic Greek."
+
+
+Elizabeth Barrett was more than a student, however scholarly, of Greek.
+She had a temperamental affinity for the Greek poets, and such
+translations as hers of "Prometheus Bound" and Bion's "Lament for Adonis,"
+identify her with the very life itself of Æschylus and Bion. In her essay
+on "The Greek Christian Poets" we find her saying: "We want the touch of
+Christ's hand upon our literature, as it touched other dead things ...
+Something of a yearning after this may be seen among the Greek Christian
+poets,... religious poets of whom the universal church and the world's
+literature would gladly embrace more names than can be counted to either."
+
+All her work of these early years is in that same delicate microscopic
+handwriting of her later life. She laughingly professed a theory that "an
+immense amount of physical energy must go to the making of those immense,
+sweeping hand-writings achieved by some persons." She instanced that of
+Landor, "who writes as if he had the sky for a copy-book and dotted his
+i's in proportion."
+
+Poetry as a serious art was the most earnest object in the life of
+Elizabeth Barrett. To her poetry meant "life in life."
+
+  "Art's a service,--mark."
+
+
+The poetic vocation could hardly be said to be so much a conscious and
+definite choice with her as a predetermined destiny, and still it was
+both. The possibility of not being a poet could never have occurred to
+her. There could have been as little question of Beethoven's being other
+than a musician or of Raphael as being other than a painter. In poetry
+Elizabeth Barrett recognized the most potent form of service; and she held
+that poetic art existed for the sake of human co-operation with the Divine
+purposes.
+
+The opening chapters of her life in the lovely seclusion of Hope End
+closed in 1832 with the removal of the family to Sidmouth in Devonshire.
+Here they were bestowed in a house which had been occupied by the Grand
+Duchess Helena. It commanded a splendid sea view, on which four
+drawing-room windows looked out, and there were green hills and trees
+behind. They met a few friends,--Sir John Kean, the Herrings,--and the
+town abounded in green lanes, "some of them quite black with foliage,
+where it is twilight in the middle of the day, and others letting in
+beautiful glimpses of the hills and the sunny sea." Henrietta Barrett took
+long walks, Elizabeth accompanying her sister, mounted on her donkey. The
+brothers and sisters were all fond of boating and passed much time on the
+water. They would row as far as Dawlish, ten miles distant, and back; and
+after the five o'clock dinner there were not infrequently moonlight
+excursions on the sea. During these first months at Sidmouth Miss Barrett
+read Bulwer's novels, which she asserts "quite delighted" her; as she
+found in them "all the dramatic talent which Scott has, and all the
+passion which he has not." Bulwer seemed to her, also, "a far more
+profound discriminator of character" than Scott. She read Mrs. Trollope,
+"that maker of books," whose work she characterized as not novels but
+"libels." She found in Mrs. Trollope "neither the delicacy nor the candor
+which constitute true nobility of mind," and thought that her talent
+formed but "a scanty veil to shadow her other defects."
+
+Miss Barrett grew to love Sidmouth, with its walks on the seashore; and
+letters, reading, poetic production, and family interests filled the time.
+Here, too, she found time to enter on a task dear to her, the translation
+of the "Prometheus Bound" of Æschylus.
+
+Some years later, however, she entirely revised this early translation, of
+which she wrote to Hugh Stuart Boyd that it was "as cold as Caucasus, and
+flat as the neighboring plain," and that "a palinodia, a recantation," was
+necessary to her. In her preface to the later translation she begged that
+her reader would forgive her English for not being Greek, and herself for
+not being Æschylus.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+1833-1841
+
+                  "... I press God's lamp
+  Close to my breast; its splendor, soon or late,
+  Will pierce the gloom; I shall emerge one day."
+
+
+BROWNING VISITS RUSSIA--"PARACELSUS"--RECOGNITION OF WORDSWORTH AND
+    LANDOR--"STRAFFORD"--FIRST VISIT TO ITALY--MRS. CARLYLE'S BAFFLED
+    READING OF "SORDELLO"--LOFTY MOTIF OF THE POEM--THE UNIVERSAL PROBLEM
+    OF LIFE--ENTHUSIASM FOR ITALY--THE SIBYLLINE LEAVES YET TO UNFOLD.
+
+
+From Camberwell to St. Petersburg was somewhat of a transition. This was
+Mr. Browning's initial excursion into a wider world of realities, as
+distinguished from that mirage which rises in the world of dreams and
+mental nebulæ. "To know the universe itself as a road,--as many roads," is
+the way in which the beckoning future prefigures itself to the artist
+temperament.
+
+  "All around him Patmos lies
+  Who hath spirit-gifted eyes."
+
+The eyes thus touched with the chrism of poetic art see the invisible
+which is peopled with forms unseen to others, and which offers a panorama
+of living drama. It is the poet who overhears the "talk of the gods," and
+when he shall report
+
+  "Some random word they say,"
+
+he becomes
+
+          "... the fated man of men
+  Whom the ages must obey."
+
+This was the undreamed destiny hovering over the young poet, luring him on
+like a guiding cloud which became a pillar of fire by night.
+
+Among his London friends was the Chevalier George de Benkhausen, the
+Russian Consul-General, who, being suddenly summoned to Russia on some
+secret mission of state, invited Browning to accompany him. Browning went
+"nominally in the character of secretary," Mrs. Orr says, and they fared
+forth on March 1, by steamer to Rotterdam, and then journeyed more than
+fifteen hundred miles by diligence, drawn by relays of galloping horses.
+The expedition was to Browning a rich mine of poetic material. The
+experience sank into the subconsciousness as seed to await fruition. In
+his "Ivan Ivanovitch," where is seen
+
+  "This highway broad and straight e'en from the Neva's mouth
+  To Moscow's gates of gold,"
+
+and in which the unending pine forests rising from the snow-covered ground
+are so vividly pictured; and in "Colombe's Birthday," where is seen the
+region of the heroine,--
+
+                           "Castle Ravestein--
+  That sleeps out trustfully its extreme age
+  On the Meuse' quiet bank, where she lived queen
+  Over the water-buds,..."
+
+and the place
+
+        "... when he hid his child
+  Among the river-flowers at Ravestein,"
+
+it can be seen how all this country impressed his imagination. Professor
+Hall Griffin finds in the fifth book of "Sordello" an unmistakable
+description of the most famous and oldest portrait of Charlemagne, which
+hangs in the Council Hall of the Rath-haus, in Aix, which Mr. Browning saw
+on this trip. During these three months he saw something of Russian
+society, and on the breaking up of the ice in the Neva in spring,
+witnessed the annual ceremony of the Czar's drinking the first glass of
+water from it. Much of the gorgeous, barbaric splendor of Russian fairs
+and booths, "with droshkies and fish-pies" on the one hand, and stately
+palaces on the other, haunted him, and reflected themselves in several of
+his poems. Especially did the Russian music and strains of folk-song
+linger in his memory for all the after years.
+
+On his return from Russia Browning had some fancy for entering on a
+diplomatic career, and was momentarily disappointed at not receiving an
+appointment to Persia, which he had in mind; fortunately for him and for
+the world he was held to the orbit of his poetic gift. Diplomacy has an
+abundance of recruits without devastating poetic genius to furnish them.
+The winter of 1834 found him deeply absorbed in "Paracelsus." This poem is
+dedicated to the Marquis Amédée de Ripert-Monclar, who was a great friend
+of Browning at this time. The Marquis was four years his senior; he was in
+England as a private agent for the Duchesse de Berri and the Royalist
+party in France to the English government. The subject of the poem is said
+to have been suggested by the Marquis, although the fact that all this
+medieval lore had been familiar to Browning from his earliest childhood
+must be accounted the pre-determining factor in its creation. William
+Sharp quotes Browning as having once said of his father: "The old
+gentleman's brain was a storehouse of literary and philosophical
+antiquities. He was completely versed in medieval legend, and seemed to
+have known Paracelsus, Faustus, and even Talmudic personages, personally,"
+and his son assimilated unconsciously this entire atmosphere.
+
+Both "Paracelsus" and "Sordello" seem to spring, as by natural poetic
+evolution, from "Pauline"; all three of these poems are, in varying
+degree, a drama of the soul's progress. They all suggest, and
+"Paracelsus," especially, in a great degree embodies, the Hegelian
+philosophy; yet Mr. Barrett Browning expresses his rather positive
+conviction that his father never read Hegel at any period of his life. Dr.
+Corson regarded these early poems of Browning as of peculiar value in
+showing his attitude toward things. "We see in what direction the poet has
+set his face," said Dr. Corson, "what his philosophy of life is, what
+soul-life means with him, what regeneration means, what edification means
+in its deepest sense of building up within us the spiritual temple." Dr.
+Corson further illuminated this attitude of the poet by pointing out that
+he emphasized the approach to perfection as something that cannot be
+brought out through what is born and resides in the brain; but it must be
+by "the attracting power of magnetic personalities, the ultimate, absolute
+personality being the God-man, Christ. The human soul is regarded in
+Browning's poetry," continued Dr. Corson, "as a complexly organized,
+individualized, divine force, destined to gravitate toward the Infinite.
+How is this force with its numberless checks and counter-checks, its
+centripetal and centrifugal tendencies, best determined in its necessarily
+oblique way? How much earthly ballast must it carry to keep it
+sufficiently steady, and how little, that it may not be weighed down with
+materialistic heaviness?" Incredibly enough, in the revelations of the
+retrospective view, "Paracelsus" made little impression on the literary
+critics of the day; the _Athenæum_ devoting to it less space even than to
+"the anonymous Pauline," while the "Philip van Artevelde" of Henry Taylor
+(now hardly remembered) received fifteen columns of tribute, in which the
+critic confided to the public his enthusiastic estimate of that
+production. Neither _Blackwood's_, the _Quarterly_, nor the _Edinburgh_
+even mentioned "Paracelsus"; the _Athenæum_ admitted that it had talent,
+but admonished the poet that "Writers would do well to remember that
+though it is not difficult to imitate the mysticism and vagueness of
+Shelley, we love him--not because of these characteristics, but in spite
+of them." The one gleam of consolation to the young poet in all this
+general neglect or unfavorable comment was that of a three-column article
+from the pen of John Forster in the _Examiner_, then conducted by Leigh
+Hunt, and on whose staff were Sergeant Talfourd and Proctor (Barry
+Cornwall) beside Forster, who was then a rising young journalist of
+twenty-three, only one month the senior of Browning. But Forster spoke
+with no uncertain note; rather, with authority, and in this critique he
+said:
+
+    "Since the publication of 'Philip van Artevelde' we have met with no
+    such evidences of poetical genius ... and we may safely predict for
+    its author a brilliant career, if he continues true to the present
+    promise of his genius."
+
+
+The immediate effect of the publication of "Paracelsus" was of a social
+rather than of a literary character, for something in it seemed magnetic
+to the life of the day, and the young poet found himself welcomed by a
+brilliant literary circle. He met Wordsworth and Walter Savage Landor,
+Dickens, Monckton Milnes (later Lord Houghton), Proctor (Barry Cornwall),
+Horne, Sergeant Talfourd, Leigh Hunt, and others. Hunt was then domiciled
+in Cheyne Row, in close proximity to the Carlyles, with whom Browning had
+already formed a friendship.
+
+Rev. William Johnson Fox, one of Browning's earliest friends, was at this
+time living at Craven Hill, Bayswater, and on an evening when Macready had
+dined with him, Browning came in. This evening (November 27, 1835) is
+noted in Macready's diary, and after speaking of Mr. Fox as an "original
+and profound thinker," he adds:
+
+    "Mr. Robert Browning, the author of 'Paracelsus,' came in after
+    dinner; I was very much pleased to meet him. His face is full of
+    intelligence.... I took Mr. Browning on, and requested to be allowed
+    to improve my acquaintance with him. He expressed himself warmly, as
+    gratified by the proposal, wished to send me his book. We exchanged
+    cards, and parted."
+
+
+Later (under date of December 7), Mr. Macready records:
+
+    "Read 'Paracelsus,' a work of great daring, starred with poetry of
+    thought, feeling, diction, but occasionally obscure. The writer can
+    scarcely fail to be a leading spirit of the time."
+
+
+On New Year's Eve Mr. Macready invited a little house party, among whom
+were Forster and Browning. "Mr. Browning was very popular with the whole
+party," writes Mr. Macready in his journal; "his simple and enthusiastic
+manner engaged attention and won golden opinions from all present; he
+looks and speaks more like a youthful poet than any man I ever saw."
+
+Browning's personal appearance, "slim, and dark, and very handsome," as
+Mary Cowden Clarke said, is pictured by many of his friends of that time.
+"As a young man," writes William Sharp, "he seems to have had a certain
+ivory delicacy of coloring ... and he appeared taller than he really was,
+partly because of his rare grace of movement, and partly from a
+characteristic high poise of the head when listening intently to music or
+conversation.... His hair was so beautiful in its heavy sculpturesque
+waves as to attract frequent notice. Another, and more subtle personal
+charm, was his voice, then with a rare, flute-like tone, clear, sweet, and
+resonant."
+
+Macready was not only a notable figure on the stage at this period, but he
+was also (what every great actor must be) a man of thought, intense
+sensibility, and wide culture. Soon after Macready had appeared in
+Talfourd's "Ion" (the _première_ being on the playwright's birthday),
+Talfourd gave a supper at his house, at which Browning for the first time
+met Wordsworth and Landor. Macready himself sat between these two
+illustrious poets, with Browning opposite to him. The guests included
+Ellen Tree, Miss Mitford, and Forster. Macready, recording this night in
+his diary, writes of "Wordsworth who pinned me." Landor, it seems, talked
+of constructing drama, and said he "had not the faculty," that he "could
+only set persons to talking; all the rest was chance." But an ever
+remembered moment came for the young poet when the host proposed a toast
+to the author of "Paracelsus," and Wordsworth, rising, said: "I am proud
+to drink to your health, Mr. Browning," and Landor bowed with his
+inimitable, courteous grace, raising his glass to his lips. For some
+years, whenever Wordsworth visited London, Forster invited Browning to
+meet him. The younger poet was never an enthusiast in his mild friendship
+for the elder, although in after years (1875) he replied to a question by
+Rev. A. B. Grosart, the editor of Wordsworth's works, that while in hasty
+youth he did "presume to use the great and venerated personality of
+Wordsworth as a sort of painter's model," he intended in "The Lost Leader"
+no portrait of the entire man. While Wordsworth's political attitude did
+not please the young disciple of Shelley, for Landor he conceived the most
+profound admiration and sympathetic affection. It was a striking sequel to
+this youthful attraction that in Landor's desolate old age it should be
+Browning who tenderly cared for him, and surrounded his last days with
+unfailing comfort and solicitude.
+
+At this memorable supper, just as Browning was about to take his leave,
+Macready laid his hand on the young man's shoulder, saying earnestly:
+"Write a play for me, and keep me from going to America." The thought
+appealed to the poet, who replied: "Shall it be historical and English?
+What do you say to 'Strafford' for a subject?" Forster was then bringing
+out his biography of Strafford, on which Browning had assisted, so that
+the theme had already engaged his imagination. A few days after the supper
+Macready records in his diary receiving a note from Browning and adds:
+"What can I say upon it? It was a tribute which remunerated me for the
+annoyances and cares of years; it was one of the very highest, may I not
+say the highest, honor I have through life received."
+
+A certain temperamental sympathy between the two men is evident, though
+Macready sounded no such fathomless depths as lay, however unsuspected, in
+Browning; but Macready gives many indications of poetic sympathies, as,
+for instance, when he records in his diary how he had been looking through
+Coleridge's translation of Wallenstein, "abounding with noble passages and
+beautiful scenes," to see if it would lend itself to stage representation.
+
+On November 19 of this autumn Macready notes in his journal that Browning
+came that night to bring his tragedy of "Strafford," of which the fourth
+act was incomplete. "I requested him to write in the plot of what was
+deficient," says Macready, and drove to the Garrick Club while Browning
+wrote out this story. Later, there was a morning call from Browning, who
+gave him an interesting old print of Richard, from some tapestry, and they
+talked of "La Vallière." All the time we get glimpses of an interesting
+circle: Bulwer and Forster call, and they discuss Cromwell; Bulwer's play
+of "Virginius" is in rehearsal; Macready acts Cardinal Wolsey; there is a
+dinner at Lady Blessington's, where are met Lord Canterbury, Count
+D'Orsay, Bulwer, Trelawney, and Proctor; there is a call on Miss
+Martineau, and meetings with Thackeray and Dickens; Kenyon appears in the
+intersecting circles; Marston (the father of the blind poet) writes his
+play, "The Patrician's Daughter"; Mr. Longfellow, "a Professor at one of
+the U. S. Universities," appears on the scene, and there is a dinner at
+which "Mr. and Mrs. N. P. Willis sat next to Longfellow." On a night when
+Browning came with some alterations for "Strafford," a stranger called,
+"saying he was a Greek, a great lover of the drama; I introduced Browning
+to him as a great tragic poet," records Macready, "and the youth wrote
+down his name, telling us he was setting off for Athens directly."
+
+The rehearsals of "Strafford" came on, but Macready seems already to have
+had misgivings. "In Shakespeare," he writes, "the great poet has only
+introduced such events as act on the individuals concerned; but in
+Browning's play we have a long scene of passion--upon what? A plan
+destroyed, a parliament dissolved...." It is easy to see how Browningesque
+this was; for to the poet no events of the objective life were so real and
+significant as those of the purely mental drama of thought, feeling, and
+purpose. The rehearsals were, however, gratifying to the author, it seems,
+for Macready records in his diary (that recurs like the chorus in a Greek
+tragedy) that he was happy "with the extreme delight Browning testified at
+the rehearsal of my part, which he said to him was a full recompense for
+having written the play, as he had seen his utmost hopes of character
+perfectly embodied." The play was performed at the Covent Garden Theater
+on the night of May 3, 1837.
+
+Both Edmund Gosse and William Sharp deny that Browning's plays failed on
+the stage; at all events, with each attempt there were untoward
+circumstances which alone would have contributed to or even doomed a play
+to a short tenure.
+
+In 1886 "Strafford" was produced in London under the auspices of the
+Browning Society, and the real power of the play surprised as well as
+deeply impressed the audiences who saw it. But "Pauline," "Paracelsus,"
+and "Strafford" all have a peculiar element of reminiscent importance, if
+it may be so termed, in that they were the forerunners, the indications of
+the great work to come.
+
+There is no dramatic poem of Browning's that has not passages of superb
+acting effects, as well as psychological fascinations for the thinker; and
+the future years were to touch him with new power to produce work whose
+dramatic power lives in imperishable significance. "Strafford" had a run
+of only five nights at this first time of its production; Macready
+received and accepted an offer to go to America, and other things
+happened. Browning became absorbed in his "Sordello," and suddenly, on
+Good Friday of 1838, he sailed for Venice, "intending to finish my poem
+among the scenes it describes," he wrote to John Robertson, who had been
+introduced to Browning by Miss Martineau. On a sailing ship, bound for
+Trieste, the poet found himself the only passenger. It was on this voyage,
+while between Gibraltar and Naples, that he wrote "How They Brought the
+Good News from Ghent to Aix." It was written on deck, penciled on the
+fly-leaf of Bartoli's _De' Simboli trasportati al Morale_. When Dr. Corson
+first visited Browning in 1881, in his London home in Warwick Crescent,
+Browning showed his guest this identical copy of the book, with the
+penciled poem on the fly-leaves, of which Dr. Corson said, in a private
+letter to a friend:
+
+    "One book in the library I was particularly interested in,--Bartoli's
+    _Simboli_, or, rather, in what the poet had written in pencil on its
+    fly-leaves, front and back, namely, 'How they brought the good news
+    from Ghent to Aix.'"
+
+
+Dr. Corson added that he had been so often asked as to what this "good
+news" was, that he put the question to Mr. Browning, who replied:
+
+    "'I don't remember whether I had in my mind any in particular, when I
+    wrote the poem'; and then, after a pause," continued Dr. Corson, "he
+    said, with a dash of expression characteristic of him, 'Of course,
+    very important news were carried between those two cities during that
+    period.'"
+
+
+In Mrs. Orr's biography of Browning she quotes a long letter written by
+him to Miss Haworth, in the late summer of 1838, after his return from
+this Italian trip, in which he says:
+
+    "You will see 'Sordello' in a trice, if the fagging fit holds. I did
+    not write six lines while absent (except a scene in a play, jotted
+    down as we sailed through the straits of Gibraltar), but I did hammer
+    out some four, two of which are addressed to you,... I saw the most
+    gorgeous and lavish sunset in the world.... I went to Trieste, then to
+    Venice, then through Treviso, and Bassano to the mountains, delicious
+    Asolo, all my places and castles you will see. Then to Vicenza, Padua,
+    and Venice again. Then to Verona, Trent, Innspruck (the Tyrol),
+    Munich, Salzburg, Frankfort and Mayence; down the Rhine to Cologne,
+    then to Aix-le-Chapelle, Liège, and Antwerp; then home.... I saw very
+    few Italians, 'to know,' that is. Those I did see I liked...."
+
+
+It is related that the captain of the ship became so much attached to
+Browning that he offered him a free passage to Constantinople; and that
+his friendly attraction to his youthful passenger was such that on
+returning to England he brought to the poet's sister a gift of six bottles
+of attar of roses. The poems of "Pippa Passes" and "In a Gondola" may be
+directly traced to this visit, and Browning seemed so invigorated by it
+that his imagination was aflame with a multitude of ideas at once.
+
+Meanwhile "Paracelsus" was winning increasing appreciation. The poet did
+not escape the usual sweeping conclusion generally put forth regarding any
+unusual work, that the author has made extensive studies for it,--as if
+ideas and imagination drew their inspiration from the outer world, and
+were solely to be appraised, as to their results, by the capacity for
+cramming. So much cramming, so much genius! He who thus mistakes
+inspiration for industry certainly proves how very remote is his mind from
+the former. With this marvelous work by a young man of twenty-three the
+usual literary legends were set afloat, like thistledown in the air, which
+seem to have floated and alighted everywhere, and which now, more than
+seventy-five years later, are apparently still floating and alighting on
+the pens of various writers, to the effect that "Paracelsus" is the result
+of "vast research among contemporary records," till the poem added another
+to the Seven Labors of Hercules. As a matter of fact, and as has already
+been noted, Browning had merely browsed about his father's library.
+
+Dr. Berdoe points out that the real "Paracelsus" cannot be understood
+without considerable excursions into the occult sciences, and he is quite
+right as to the illumination these provide, in proportionate degree as
+they are acquired by the reader; as a matter of course they enlarge his
+horizon, and offer him clues to unsuspected labyrinths; and so fine and
+complete is Dr. Berdoe's own commentary on "Paracelsus" that it might not
+unduly be held as supplementary to the reader's entire enjoyment of the
+poem. Dr. Berdoe notes that the Bishop of Spanheim, who was the instructor
+of Paracelsus, defined "divine magic," as another name for alchemy, "and
+lays down the great doctrine of all medieval occultism, as of all modern
+theosophy,--of a soul-power equally operative in the material and the
+immaterial, in nature and in the consciousness of man." The sympathetic
+reader of Browning's "Paracelsus" will realize, however, that the drama he
+presents is spiritual, rather than occult. It is not the search for the
+possible mysteries, or achievements of the crucible. It is the adventure
+of the soul, not the penetration into the secrets of unknown elementals.
+
+In the autumn of 1835 the Browning family removed from Camberwell to
+Hatcham. They bestowed themselves in a spacious, delightful old house,
+with "long, low rooms," wherein the household gods, inclusive of the six
+thousand books of the elder Browning's treasured library, found abundant
+accommodation; and the outlook on the Surrey hills gratified them all.
+During these years we catch a few glimpses of the poet's only sister,
+Sarianna, who was two years younger than her brother, and quite as fond of
+listening to the conversation of an uncle, William Shergold Browning, who
+had removed to Paris. Here he was connected with the Rothschild banking
+house, and had achieved some distinction as the author of a "History of
+the Huguenots." He also wrote two historical novels, entitled "Hoel Mar en
+Morven" and "Provost of Paris," and compiled one of those harmless volumes
+entitled "Leisure Hours." It was this uncle who had brought about the
+introduction of his nephew and Marquis Amédée de Ripert-Monclar, whose
+uncle, the Marquis de Fortia, a member of the Institut, was a special
+friend of William Shergold Browning. In later years a grandson of the
+Paris Browning, after graduating at Lincoln College, became Crown
+prosecutor in New South Wales. He is known as Robert Jardine Browning, and
+he was on terms of intimacy with his cousins, Robert and Sarianna, whom he
+often visited.
+
+
+[Illustration: ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
+
+_From a drawing made by Field Talfourd, in Rome, 1855_]
+
+
+The family friendship with Carlyle was a source of great pleasure to Mrs.
+Browning, the poet's mother, and there is on record a night when Carlyle
+and his brother dined with the Brownings at Hatcham. Another family friend
+and habitué was the Rev. Archer Gurney, who at a later time became
+Chaplain to the British Embassy in Paris. Mr. Gurney was a writer of poems
+and plays, lyrics and dramatic verse, and a volume of his work entitled
+"Fra Cipollo and Other Poems" was published, from which Browning drew his
+motto for "Colombe's Birthday." Mr. Gurney was deeply interested in
+young Browning's poetry, and there is a nebulous trace of his having
+something to do with the publication of "Bells and Pomegranates." Another
+friend of the poet was Christopher Dowson, who married the sister of
+Alfred Domett; at their homes, Albion Terrace, and their summer cottage in
+Epping Forest, Browning was a frequent visitor. Dowson died early; but
+Field Talfourd (a brother of the author of "Ion" and the artist who made
+those crayon portraits of Browning and his wife, in the winter of 1859, in
+Rome), Joseph Arnould, and Alfred Domett, with one or two other young men,
+comprised the poet's more intimate circle at this time. Arnould and Domett
+were both studying for the Bar; Arnould had gained the Newdigate in 1834,
+and had won great applause by his recital (in the Sheldonian Theater) of
+his "Hospice of St. Bernard." Later he was offered the editorship of the
+_Daily News_, founded by Forster and Dickens, but he kept true to his
+legal studies and in time became the Judge of the High Court at Bombay,
+and was knighted by the Crown.
+
+There was a dinner given by Macready at which Browning, Carlyle, and Miss
+Martineau were guests, and later a dinner at the Carlyles' where Browning
+met a son of Burns "who sang some of his father's songs." To a friend
+Browning wrote: "I dined with dear Carlyle and his wife (catch me calling
+people 'dear' in a hurry) yesterday. I don't know any people like them."
+
+Browning passed a day with Miss Martineau at Ascot, and again visited her
+in Elstree, where she was staying with the Macreadys. She greatly admired
+"Paracelsus," and spoke of her first acquaintance with his poetry as a
+"wonderful event." He dined with her at her home in Westminster, and there
+met John Robertson, the assistant editor of the _Westminster Review_, to
+which Miss Martineau was a valued contributor. Henry Chorley, a musical
+critic of the day, was another guest that night, and soon after Browning
+dined with him "in his bachellor abode," the other guests being Arnould,
+Domett, and Bryan Proctor; later, at a musicale given by Chorley, Browning
+met Charlotte Cushman and Adelaide Kemble. Chorley drew around him the
+best musicians of the time: Mendelssohn, Moscheles, Liszt, David, and
+other great composers were often rendered in his chambers. Proctor was
+then living in Harley Street, and his house was a center for the literary
+folk of the day.
+
+George Eliot speaks of the indifference with which we gaze at our
+unintroduced neighbor, "while Destiny stands by, sarcastic, with our
+_dramatis personæ_ folded in her hands." It was such an hour of destiny as
+this when, at a dinner given by Sergeant Talfourd, at his home (No. 56) in
+Russell Square, Browning first met John Kenyon. Our great events mostly
+come to us like gods in disguise, and this evening was no exception.
+Unknown and undreamed of, the young poet had come to one of those partings
+of the ways which are only recognized in the perspective of time.
+Browning's life had been curiously free from any romance beyond that with
+the muses. The one woman with whom he had seemed most intimate, Miss Fanny
+Haworth, was eleven years his senior, and their intercourse, both
+conversationally and in letters, had been as impersonal as literature
+itself. She was a writer of stories and verse, and had celebrated her
+young friend in two sonnets. This friendship was one of literary
+attractions alone, and the poet had apparently devoted all his romance to
+poetry rather than demanded it in life. But now, golden doors were to
+open.
+
+At this dinner at Mr. Talfourd's, John Kenyon came over to the poet, after
+they had left the dining-room, and inquired if he were not the son of his
+old school-fellow, Robert Browning. Finding this surmise to be true, he
+became greatly attached to him. Mr. Kenyon had lost his wife some time
+previously; he had no children, and he was a prominent and favorite figure
+in London society. Southey said of Kenyon that he was "one of the best and
+pleasantest of men, whom every one likes better the longer he is known,"
+and Kenyon, declaring that Browning "deserved to be a poet, being one in
+heart and life," offered to him his "best and most precious gift,"--that
+of an introduction to his second cousin, Elizabeth Barrett.
+
+This was the first intimation of Destiny, but the meeting was still to
+remain in the future. "Sordello" was published in 1840,--"a colossal
+derelict on the ocean of poetry," as William Sharp terms it. The
+impenetrable nature of the intricacies of the work has been the theme of
+many anecdotes. Tennyson declared that there were only two lines in
+it--the opening and the closing ones--which he understood, and "they are
+both lies," he feelingly added. Douglas Jerrold tackled it when he was
+just recovering from an illness, and despairingly set down his inability
+to comprehend it to the probability that his mind was impaired by disease;
+and thrusting the book into the hands of his wife he entreated her to read
+it at once. He watched her breathlessly, and when she exclaimed, "I don't
+know what this means; it is gibberish," Jerrold exclaimed, "Thank God, I
+am not an idiot."
+
+Still another edifying testimony to the general inability to understand
+"Sordello" is given by a French critic, Odysse Barot, who quotes a passage
+where the poet says, "God gave man two faculties," and adds, "I wish while
+He was about it (_pendant qu'il était en train_) God had supplied
+another--namely, the power of understanding Mr. Browning."
+
+Mrs. Carlyle declared that she read "Sordello" attentively twice, but was
+unable to discover whether the title referred to "a man, a city, or a
+tree"; yet most readers of this poem will be able to recognize that
+Sordello was a singer of the thirteenth century, whose fame suddenly
+lures him from the safety of solitude to the perils of society in Mantua,
+after which "immersion in worldliness" he again seeks seclusion, and
+partially recovers himself. The _motif_ of the poem recalls the truth
+expressed in the lines:
+
+  "Who loves the music of the spheres
+  And lives on earth, must close his ears
+  To many voices that he hears."
+
+
+Suddenly a dazzling political career opens before Sordello; he is
+discovered to be--not a nameless minstrel, but the son of the great
+Ghibelline chief, Salinguerra; more marvelous still, he is loved by Palma,
+in her youthful beauty and fascination; and the crucial question comes, as
+in some form it must come to every life, whether he shall choose all the
+kingdoms of power and glory, or that kingdom which is not of earth, and
+cometh not with observation.
+
+It is easy to realize how such a problem would appeal to Robert Browning.
+Notwithstanding the traditional "obscurity" of "Sordello," it offers to
+the thoughtful reader a field of richest and most entrancing suggestion.
+
+To Alfred Domett, under date of May 22, 1842, Browning writes:[1]
+
+    "... I cannot well say nothing of my constant thoughts of you, most
+    pleasant remembrances of you, earnest desires for you. I have a notion
+    you will come back some bright morning a dozen years hence and find me
+    just gone--to heaven, or Timbuctoo! I give way to this fancy, for it
+    lets me write what, I dare say, I have written niggardly enough, of my
+    real love for you, better love than I had supposed I was fit for.... I
+    have read your poems; you can do anything, and I should think would do
+    much. I will if I live. At present, if I stand on head or heels I
+    don't know; what men require I know as little; and of what they are in
+    possession I know not.... With this I send you your 'Sordello.' I
+    suppose, I am sure, indeed, that the translation from Dante, on the
+    fly-leaf, is your own...."
+
+
+In another letter to Alfred Domett, Browning thus refers to Tennyson:
+
+    "... But how good when good he is! That noble 'Locksley Hall!'"
+
+
+Browning had already become enamored of Italy; and Mrs. Bridell-Fox,
+writing to William Sharp, speaks of meeting the poet after his return, and
+thus describes the impression he made upon her:[2]
+
+    "I remember him as looking in often in the evenings, having just
+    returned from his first visit to Venice. I cannot tell the date for
+    certain. He was full of enthusiasm for that Queen of Cities. He used
+    to illustrate his glowing descriptions of its beauties, the palaces,
+    the sunsets, the moonrises, by a most original kind of etching. Taking
+    up a bit of stray notepaper, he would hold it over a lighted candle,
+    moving the paper about gently till it was cloudily smoked over, and
+    then utilizing the darker smears for clouds, shadows, water, or what
+    not, would etch with a dry pen the forms of lights on cloud and
+    palace, on bridge or gondola, on the vague and dreamy surface he had
+    produced. My own passionate longing to see Venice dates from those
+    delightful, well-remembered evenings of my childhood."
+
+
+This visit of the young poet to Italy forged the link of that golden chain
+which was to unite all his future with that land of art and song which
+held for him such wonderful Sibylline leaves of the yet undreamed-of
+chapters of his life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+1833-1841
+
+  "O Life, O Beyond,
+    _Art_ thou fair, _art_ thou sweet?"
+
+
+  "How the world is made for each of us!
+    How all we perceive and know in it
+  Tends to some moment's product thus,
+    When a soul declares itself--to wit,
+  By its fruit, the thing it does!"
+
+
+ELIZABETH BARRETT'S LOVE FOR THE GREEK POETS--LYRICAL WORK--SERIOUS
+    ENTRANCE ON PROFESSIONAL LITERATURE--NOBLE IDEAL OF POETRY--LONDON
+    LIFE--KENYON--FIRST KNOWLEDGE OF ROBERT BROWNING.
+
+
+Elizabeth Barrett was but twelve days in translating the "Prometheus
+Bound" of Æschylus, and of the result of this swift achievement she
+herself declared, when laughingly discussing this work with Home in later
+years, that it ought to have been "thrown in the fire immediately
+afterward as the only means of giving it a little warmth." Combined with a
+few of her other poems, however, it was published (anonymously) in 1832,
+and received from the _Athenæum_ the edifying verdict that "those who
+adventure in the hazardous lists of poetic translation should touch any
+one rather than Æschylus, and they may take warning from the writer before
+us."
+
+The quiet life at Sidmouth goes on,--goes on, in fact, for three
+years,--and the life is not an unmixed joy to Miss Barrett. "I like the
+greenness and the tranquillity and the sea," she writes to a friend.
+"Sidmouth is a nest among elms; and the lulling of the sea and the shadow
+of the hills make it a peaceful one; but there are no majestic features in
+the country. The grandeur is concentrated upon the ocean without deigning
+to have anything to do with the earth...."
+
+In the summer of 1835 the Barretts left Sidmouth for London, locating at
+first in Gloucester Place (No. 74) where they remained for three years.
+Hugh Stuart Boyd had, in the meantime, removed to St. John's Wood; Mr.
+Kenyon and Miss Mitford became frequent visitors. Miss Barrett's literary
+activity was stimulated by London life, and she began contributing to a
+number of periodicals, and her letter-writing grew more and more
+voluminous. To Mr. Boyd she wrote soon after their arrival in London:
+
+    "As George is going to do what I am afraid I shall not be able to do
+    to-day,--to visit you,--he must take with him a few lines from me, to
+    say how glad I am to feel myself again only at a short distance from
+    you; and gladder I shall be when the same room holds both of us. But I
+    cannot open the window and fly.... How much you will have to say to me
+    about the Greeks, unless you begin first to abuse me about the Romans.
+    If you begin that, the peroration will be a very pathetic one, in my
+    being turned out of your doors. Such is my prophecy.
+
+    "Papa has been telling me of your abusing my stanzas on Mrs. Hemans's
+    death. I had a presentiment that you would...."
+
+
+If the classic lore and ponderous scholarship unfitted Mr. Boyd to feel
+the loveliness of this lyric, those who enter into its pathos may find
+some compensation for not being great classicists. It is in this poem that
+the lines occur,--
+
+  "Nor mourn, O living One, because her part in life was mourning:
+  Would she have lost the poet's fire, for anguish of the burning?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Albeit softly in our ears her silver song was ringing,
+  The foot-fall of her parting soul is softer than her singing."
+
+
+Miss Barrett's fugitive poems of this time tell much of the story of her
+days. She sees Haydon's portrait of Wordsworth, and it suggests the sonnet
+beginning:
+
+  "Wordsworth upon Helvellyn!..."
+
+
+The poems written previously to "A Drama of Exile" do not at all indicate
+the power and beauty and the depth of significance for which all her
+subsequent work is so remarkable. "The Seraphim," "Isobel's Child," "The
+Virgin Mary to the Child Jesus," however much they may contain occasional
+glimpses of poetic fire, would never have established her rank. Yet "The
+Sleep" belongs to this period, and that poem of exquisite pathos,
+"Cowper's Grave." Anticipating a little, there came that poem which
+awakened England and the modern world, indeed, to a sense of the suffering
+of children in factory life, "The Cry of the Children," which appeared
+almost simultaneously with Lord Shaftesbury's great speech in Parliament
+on child labor. The poem and the statesman and philanthropist together
+aroused England.
+
+A poem called "Confessions" is full of a mysterious power that haunts the
+reader in a series of pictures:
+
+  "Face to face in my chamber, my silent chamber, I saw her:
+  God and she and I only, there I sate down to draw her
+  Soul through the clefts of confession--'Speak, I am holding thee fast,
+  As the angel of resurrection shall do at the last.'"
+
+
+And what touching significance is in these lines:
+
+  "The least touch of their hands in the morning, I keep it by day and
+      by night;
+  Their least step on the stair, at the door, still throbs through me,
+      if ever so light."
+
+
+There were the "Crowned and Wedded" that celebrated the marriage of
+England's beloved queen; "Bertha in the Lane," which has been one of the
+most universal favorites of any of her lyrics; still later, "The Dead
+Pan," which essentially embodies her highest convictions regarding the
+poetic art: that Poetry must be real, and, above all, true.
+
+  "O brave poets, keep back nothing,
+  Nor mix falsehood with the whole!
+
+     *       *       *       *
+
+  Hold, in high poetic duty,
+  Truest Truth the fairest Beauty!"
+
+In such lines as these she expressed her deepest feeling.
+
+Then appeared "Comfort," "Futurity," and "An Apprehension"; the dainty
+little picture of her childish days in "Hector in the Garden"; the sonnets
+to George Sand, on which the French biographer[3] of Mrs. Browning, in
+recent years, has commented, translating the first line,--
+
+  "_Vrai genie, mais vraie femme!_"
+
+and adding that these words, addressed to George Sand, are illustrated by
+her own life.
+
+The sonnet "Insufficiency," of this period, closes with the lines,
+
+  "And what we best conceive we fail to speak.
+  Wait, soul, until thine ashen garments fall,
+  And then resume thy broken strains, and seek
+  Fit peroration without let or thrall."
+
+
+In all this work that deep religious note, that exaltation of spirituality
+which so completely characterized Elizabeth Barrett Browning, is felt by
+the reader. Religion was always to her a life, not a litany. The Divine
+Love was as the breath of life to her, wherein she lived and moved, and on
+which she relied for her very being.
+
+The poem called "A Rhapsody of Life's Progress," though not often noted
+by the critical writers on Mrs. Browning, is one full of impressive lines,
+with that haunting refrain of every stanza,--
+
+  "O Life, O Beyond,
+  Thou art strange, thou art sweet!"
+
+Albeit, a candid view must also recognize that this poem reveals those
+early faults, the redundancy, the almost recklessness of color and rhythm,
+that are much less frequently encountered in the poems of Mrs. Browning
+than they were in those of Miss Barrett. For poetic work is an art as well
+as a gift, and while "Poets are born, not made," yet, being born, the poet
+must proceed also to make himself. In this "Rhapsody" occur the lines that
+are said to have thrown cultured Bostonians into a bewilderment
+exceptional; a baffled and despairing state not to be duplicated in all
+history, unless by that of the Greeks before the Eleusinian mysteries; the
+lines running,--
+
+  "Let us sit on the thrones
+    In a purple sublimity,
+  And grind down men's bones
+    To a pale unanimity."
+
+Polite circles in Boston pondered unavailingly upon this medley, and were
+apparently reduced to the same mental condition as was Mrs. Carlyle when
+she read "Sordello." Unfortunately for Jane Carlyle there were in her day
+no Browning societies, with their all-embracing knowledge, to which
+Browning himself conveniently referred all persons who questioned him as
+to the meaning of certain passages. One Boston woman, not unknown to fame,
+recalls even now that she walked the Common, revolving these cryptic lines
+in her mind, and meeting Dr. Holmes, asked if he understood them, to which
+the Autocrat replied, "God forbid!"
+
+This very affluence of feeling, however, or even recklessness of imagery,
+was not without its place as a chastened and subdued factor in the power
+of Miss Barrett later on. From her earliest childhood she had the
+scholar's instinct and love of learning; she read fluently French, German,
+and Italian; she was well grounded in Latin, and for the Greek she had
+that impassioned love that made its literature to her an assimilation
+rather than an acquirement. Its rich intellectual treasure entered into
+her inmost life. She also read Hebrew, and all her life kept with her a
+little Hebrew Bible, as well as a Greek Testament, the margins of both of
+which are filled with her notes and commentaries in her clear, microscopic
+handwriting. Miss Barrett's earliest work, published anonymously, at her
+father's expense, rather to gratify himself and a few friends than to make
+any appeal to the public, had no special claim to literary immortality,
+whatever its promise; but once in London, something in the very atmosphere
+seemed to act as a solvent to precipitate her nebulous dreams and
+crystallize them into definite and earnest aims. Poetry had always been to
+her "its own exceeding great reward," but she was now conscious of a
+desire to enter into the stress and storm of the professional writer, who
+must sink or swim, accept the verdict of success or failure, and launch
+forth on that career whose very hardships and uncertainties are a part of
+its fascination. To Elizabeth Barrett, secure in her father's home, there
+was little possibility of the hardships and privations on the material
+side not unfrequently incidental to the pursuit of letters, but to every
+serious worker life prefigures itself as something not unlike the Norse
+heaven with its seven floors, each of which must be conquered.
+
+  "Here a star, and there a star,
+    Some lose their way,--
+  Here a mist, and there a mist,
+    Afterwards ... day!"
+
+
+Miss Barrett finds London "wrapped up like a mummy, in a yellow mist," but
+she tries to like it, and "looks forward to seeing those here whom we
+might see nowhere else." Her brother George, who had recently graduated
+from the University of Glasgow, was now a barrister student at the Inner
+Temple. Henrietta and Arabel, the two sisters, found interest and delight
+in the new surroundings.
+
+Retrospectively viewed, Mrs. Browning's life falls easily into three
+periods, which seem to name themselves as a prelude, an interlude, and a
+realization. She was just past her twenty-ninth birthday when the family
+came up to London, and up to that time she had, indeed, lived with dreams
+and visions for her company. These years were but the prelude, the
+preparatory period. She then entered on the experimental phase, the
+testing of her powers, the interlude that lay between early promise and
+later fulfillment. In her forty-first year came her marriage to Robert
+Browning and the beginning of those nearly fifteen years of marvelous
+achievement, during which the incomparable "Sonnets from the Portuguese"
+and "Aurora Leigh" were written,--the period of realization.
+
+Before the beginning of the London period Miss Barrett's literary work had
+been largely that of the amateur, though in the true meaning of that
+somewhat misused term, as the lover, rather than as merely the more or
+less crude experimenter. For Poetry to Elizabeth Barrett was a divine
+commission no less than an inborn gift. Under any circumstances, she would
+have poured her life "with passion into music," and with the utmost
+sincerity could she have said, with George Eliot's "Armgart,"
+
+  "I am not glad with that mean vanity
+  Which knows no good beyond its appetite
+  Full feasting upon praise! I am only glad,
+  Being praised for what I know is worth the praise;
+  Glad of the proof that I myself have part
+  In what I worship!"
+
+
+As is revealed and attested in many expressions of her maturer years,
+Poetry was to her the most serious, as well as the most enthralling, of
+pursuits, while she was also a very accomplished scholar. A special gift,
+and a facility for the acquirement of scholarly knowledge in the academic
+sense, do not invariably go together; often is the young artist so
+bewitched with his gift, so entranced with the glory and the splendor of a
+dream, that the text-book, by contrast, is a dull page, to which he cannot
+persuade himself to turn. To him the air is peopled with visions and
+voices that fascinate his attention. In the college days of James Russell
+Lowell is seen an illustration of this truth, the young student being
+temporarily suspended, and sent--not to Coventry, but to Concord. Perhaps
+the banishment of a Harvard student for the high crime and misdemeanor of
+being addicted to rhyme rather than mathematics, and his penalty in the
+form of exile to Concord, the haunt of Emerson and the Muses, may have
+made Pan laugh. But, at all events, Miss Barrett was as naturally a
+scholar, in the fullest significance of the term, as she was a poet. This
+splendid equipment was a tremendous factor in that splendor of
+achievement, and in that universally recognized success, that has made the
+name of Elizabeth Barrett Browning immortal in all ages, as the greatest
+woman poet the world has ever known.
+
+The professional literary life is a drama in itself,--comedy, or tragedy,
+as may be, and usually a mixture of both. It ranges over wide areas of
+experience, from that of the author of "Richard Feverel," who is said to
+have written that novel on a diet of oatmeal and cold water, to that of
+the luxurious author whose _séances_ with the Muses are decorously
+conducted in irreproachable interiors, with much garnishing, old rose and
+ivory, ebony carvings, and inlaid desks, at which the marvelous being who
+now and then condescends to "dictate" a "best seller," is apt to be
+surprised by a local photographer. But as a noted educator defined a
+University as "a log,--with Mark Hopkins sitting on the other end," so the
+"real thing" in a literary career may not inaptly be typified by Louisa
+Alcott sitting on the back stairs, writing on an old atlas; and it was
+into actualities somewhat like these that Elizabeth Barrett desired to
+plunge. The question that she voiced in later years, in "Aurora Leigh,"--
+
+  "My own best poets, am I one with you,
+  That thus I love you,--or but one through love?
+  Does all this smell of thyme about my feet
+  Conclude my visit to your holy hill
+  In personal presence, or but testify
+  The rustling of your vesture through my dreams
+  With influent odours?"--
+
+this question, in substance, stirred now in her life, and insisted upon
+reply. She must, like all real poets, proceed to "hang her verses in the
+wind," and watch if perchance there are
+
+                "... the five
+  Which five hundred will survive."
+
+
+Elizabeth Barrett was of a simplicity that had no affinities with the
+_poseur_ in any respect, and she had an inimitable sense of humor that
+pervaded all her days. Wit and pathos are, indeed, so closely allied that
+it would be hardly possible that the author of the "De Profundis," a poem
+that sounds the profoundest depths of the human soul, should not have the
+corresponding quality of the swiftest perception of the humorous. It was
+somewhere about this time that Poe sent to her a volume of his poems with
+an inscription on the fly-leaf that declared her to be "the noblest of her
+sex."
+
+"And what could I say in reply," she laughingly remarked, "but 'Sir, you
+are the most discerning of yours!'"
+
+The first poem of hers that was offered in a purely professional way was
+"The Romaunt of Margret." It appeared in the _New Monthly Magazine_, then
+edited by Bulwer, who was afterward known as the first Lord Lytton. At
+this time Richard Hengist Horne was basking in the fame of his "Orion,"
+and to him Miss Barrett applied, through a mutual friend, as to whether
+her enclosed poem had any title to that name, or whether it was mere
+verse. "As there could be no doubt in the mind of the recipient on that
+point," said Mr. Horne, "the poem was forwarded to Bulwer, and duly
+appeared. The next one sent," continues Mr. Horne, "started the poetess at
+once on her bright and noble career." This "next one" appears to have been
+"The Poet's Vow," and a confirmation of this supposition is seen in a
+letter of hers at this date to Mr. Boyd, in which she explains her not
+having at hand a copy of the _Athenæum_ that he had wished to see, and
+adds:
+
+    "I can give you, from memory, the _Athenæum's_ review in that number.
+    The critic says 'It is rich in poetry ... including a fine, although
+    too dreamy, ballad, The Poet's Vow. We are almost tempted to pause and
+    criticise the work of an artist of so much inspiration and promise as
+    the author of this poem, and to exhort him to a greater clearness of
+    expression, and less quaintness in the choice of his phraseology, but
+    this is not the time or place for digression.'
+
+    "You see my critic has condemned me with a very gracious countenance.
+    Do put on yours."
+
+
+Again, under date of October, 1836, she writes to Mr. Boyd:
+
+    "... But what will you say to me when I confess that in the face of
+    all your kind encouragement, my Drama of the Angels (The Seraphim)
+    has not been touched until the last three days? It was not out of pure
+    idleness on my part, nor of disregard to your admonition; but when my
+    thoughts were distracted with other things, books just began enclosing
+    me all around, a whole load of books upon my conscience, and I could
+    not possibly rise to the gate of heaven and write about my angels. You
+    know one can't sometimes sit down to the sublunary occupation of even
+    reading Greek, unless one feels free to it. And writing poetry
+    requires a double liberty, and an inclination which comes only of
+    itself....
+
+    "... I have had another note from the editor--very flattering, and
+    praying for farther supplies. The 'Angels' were not ready, and I was
+    obliged to send something else."
+
+
+A discussion arises in the family regarding the taking of a house in
+Wimpole Street, and Elizabeth remarks that for her part she would rather
+go on inhabiting castles in the air than to live in that particular house,
+"whose walls look so much like Newgate's turned inside out." She
+continues, however, that if it is decided upon, she has little doubt she
+will wake and sleep very much as she would anywhere else. With a strong
+will, and an intense, resistless kind of energy in holding any conviction,
+and an independence of character only equalled by its preeminent justice
+and generous magnanimity, she was singularly free from any tenacious
+insistence upon the matters of external life. She had her preferences; but
+she always accommodated herself to the decision or the necessity of the
+hour, and there was an end of it. She had that rare power of instantaneous
+mental adjustment; and if a given thing were right and best, or if it were
+not best but was still inevitable, she accepted it and did not make life a
+burden to every one concerned by endless discussion.
+
+London itself did not captivate her fancy. "Did Dr. Johnson in his
+paradise in Fleet Street love the pavements and the walls?" she
+questioned. "I doubt that," she added; "the place, the privileges, don't
+mix in one's love as is done by the hills and the seaside."
+
+The privileges, however, became more and more interesting to her. One of
+these was when she met Wordsworth, whom she describes as being "very
+kind," and that he "let her hear his conversation."
+
+This conversation she did not find "prominent," for she saw at the same
+time Landor, "the brilliant Landor," she notes, and felt the difference
+"between great genius and eminent talent." But there was a day on which
+she went to Chiswick with Wordsworth and Miss Mitford, and all the way she
+thought she must be dreaming. It was Landor, though, who captivated her
+fancy at once, as he already had that of her future poet-lover and
+husband, who was yet unrevealed to her. Landor, "in whose hands the ashes
+of antiquity burn again," she writes, gave her two Greek epigrams he had
+recently written. All this time she is reading everything,--Sheridan
+Knowles's play of "The Wreckers," which Forrest had rejected, "rather for
+its unfitness to his own personal talent than for its abstract demerit,"
+she concludes; and "Ion," which she finds beautiful morally rather than
+intellectually, and thinks that, as dramatic poetry, it lacks power,
+passion, and condensation. Reading Combe's "Phrenology," she refers to his
+theory that slowness of the pulse is a sign of the poetical impulse. If
+this be true, she fears she has no hope of being a poet, "for my pulse is
+in a continual flutter," she notes; and she explains to Mr. Boyd that the
+line
+
+  "One making one in strong compass"
+
+in "The Poet's Vow," which he found incomprehensible, really means that
+"the oneness of God, 'in Whom are all things,' produces a oneness, or
+sympathy, with all things. The unity of God preserves a unity in man."
+
+All in all, Miss Barrett is coming to enjoy her London life. There was
+the Royal Academy, "and real live poets, with their heads full of the
+trees and birds, and sunshine of Paradise"; and she has "stood face to
+face with Wordsworth and Landor"; Miss Mitford has become a dear friend,
+but she visits London only at intervals, as she lives--shades of benighted
+days!--thirty miles from London. A twentieth century residence across the
+continent could hardly seem more remote.
+
+The removal to Wimpole Street was decided upon, and to that house (No.
+50), gloomy or the reverse, the Barretts migrated. Miss Barrett's new
+book, under the title of "The Seraphim and Other Poems," was published,
+marking her first professional appearance before the public over her own
+name. "I feel very nervous about it," she said; "far more than I did when
+my 'Prometheus' crept out of the Greek."
+
+Mr. Kenyon was about to go to Rydal Mount on a visit to Wordsworth, and
+Miss Barrett begs him to ask, as for himself, two garden cuttings of
+myrtle or geranium, and send to her--two, that she may be sure of saving
+one.
+
+Autographs had value in those days, and in a note to Mr. Bray Miss Barrett
+alludes to one of Shakespeare's that had been sold for a hundred pounds
+and asks if he feels sure of the authenticity of his own Shakespearean
+autograph.
+
+A new poetic era had dawned about the time that "The Seraphim" appeared.
+Tennyson had written "Audley Court," and was beginning to be known in
+America, owing this first introduction to Emerson, who visited Landor in
+Florence and made some sojourn afterward in England. The Boston publishing
+house of C. C. Little and Company (now Little, Brown, and Company) had
+written to Tennyson (under date of April 27, 1838) regarding a
+republishing of his volume, as the future laureate was already recognized
+for the musical quality and perfection of art in his work. Browning had
+published only "Pauline," "Paracelsus," and "Strafford." Shelley and Keats
+were dead, their mortal remains reposing in the beautiful English cemetery
+in Rome, under the shadow of the tall cypresses, by the colossal pyramid
+of Caius Cestus. Byron and Scott and Coleridge had also died. There were
+Landor and Southey, Rogers and Campbell; but with Miss Barrett there came
+upon the scene a new minstrelsy that compelled its own recognition. Some
+of her shorter poems had caught the popular ear; notably, her "Cowper's
+Grave," which remains, to-day, one of her most appealing and exquisite
+lyrics.
+
+  "It is a place where poets crowned may feel the heart's decaying;
+  It is a place where happy saints may weep amid their praying."
+
+The touching pathos of the line,
+
+  "O Christians, at your cross of hope a hopeless hand was clinging!"
+
+moves every reader. And what music and touching appeal in the succeeding
+stanza:
+
+  "And now, what time ye all may read through dimming tears his story,
+  How discord on the music fell and darkness on the glory,
+  And how when, one by one, sweet sounds and wandering lights departed,
+  He wore no less a loving face because so broken-hearted."
+
+
+In seeing, "on Cowper's grave,... his rapture in a vision," Miss Barrett
+pictured his strength--
+
+  "... to sanctify the poet's high vocation."
+
+Her reverence for poetic art finds expression in almost every poem that
+she has written.
+
+Among other shorter poems included with "The Seraphim" were "The Poet's
+Vow," "Isobel's Child," and others, including, also, "The Romaunt of
+Margret." _The Athenæum_ pronounced the collection an "extraordinary
+volume,--especially welcome as an evidence of female genius and
+accomplishment,--but hardly less disappointing than extraordinary. Miss
+Barrett's genius is of a high order," the critic conceded; but he found
+her language "wanting in simplicity." One reviewer castigated her for
+presuming to take such a theme as "The Seraphim" "from which Milton would
+have shrank!" All the critics agree in giving her credit for genius of no
+ordinary quality; but the general consensus of opinion was that this
+genius manifested itself unevenly, that she was sometimes led into errors
+of taste. That she was ever intentionally obscure, she denied.
+"Unfortunately obscure" she admitted that she might be, but "willingly
+so,--never."
+
+Of the personal friends of Elizabeth Barrett one of the nearest was Mary
+Russell Mitford, who was nineteen years her senior. Miss Mitford describes
+her at the time of their meeting as having "such a look of youthfulness
+that she had some difficulty in persuading a friend that Miss Barrett was
+old enough to be introduced into society." Miss Mitford added that she was
+"certainly one of the most interesting persons" she had ever seen; "of a
+slight, delicate figure,... large, tender eyes, and a smile like a
+sunbeam."
+
+Mr. Kenyon brought Andrew Crosse, a noted electrician of the day, to see
+Miss Barrett; and in some reminiscences[4] written by Mrs. Andrew Crosse
+there is a chapter on "John Kenyon and his Friends" that offers the best
+comprehension, perhaps, of this man who was so charming and beloved a
+figure in London society,--a universal favorite. Born in 1784 in Jamaica,
+the son of a wealthy land-owner, he was sent to England as a lad, educated
+there, and in 1815 he set out for a tour of the continent. In 1817, in
+Paris, he met and became intimate with Professor George Ticknor of
+Harvard University, the Spanish historian; and through this friendship Mr.
+Kenyon came to know many of the distinguished Americans of the day,
+including Emerson, Longfellow, and Willis. Coleridge, Southey, Wordsworth,
+and Landor were among Kenyon's most intimate circle; and there is a record
+of one of his dinners at which the guests were Daniel Webster, Professor
+and Mrs. Ticknor, Dickens, Montalembert, and Lady Mary Shepherd. In 1823
+Kenyon married Miss Curteis, and they lived for some years in Devonshire
+Place, with frequent interludes of travel on the continent. Mrs. Kenyon
+died in 1835, but when the Barretts came up to London Kenyon had resumed
+his delightful hospitalities, of which he made fairly a fine art.
+Professor Ticknor has left an allusion to another dinner at Kenyon's where
+he met Miss Barrett. In the autumn of 1839 Miss Barrett, accompanied by
+her brother Edward, went to Torquay, for the warmer climate, and Mr.
+Kenyon also had gone there for the winter. Around him were gathered a
+group of notable friends, with whom Miss Barrett, his cousin (with one
+remove), was constantly associated,--Landor, Andrew Crosse, Theodosia
+Garrow (afterwards the wife of Thomas Adolphus Trollope), and Bezzi, an
+accomplished Italian, who was afterward associated with Seymour Kirkup in
+discovering Dante's portrait concealed under the whitewash applied to the
+walls of the Bargello in Florence. Miss Barrett was at this time entering
+into that notable correspondence with Richard Hengist Horne, many of these
+letters containing passages of interest. For instance, of poetry we find
+her saying:
+
+    "If poetry under any form be exhaustible, Nature is; and if Nature is,
+    we are near a blasphemy, and I, for one, could not believe in the
+    immortality of the soul.
+
+      '_Si l'âme est immortelle,_
+       _L'amour ne l'est-il-pas?_'
+
+    Extending _l'amour_ into all love of the ideal, and attendant power of
+    idealizing.... I don't believe in mute, inglorious Miltons, and far
+    less in mute, inglorious Shakespeares."
+
+
+Referring to some correspondence with Miss Martineau, Miss Barrett
+characterizes her as "the noblest female intelligence between the seas,"
+and of Tennyson, in relation to some mention of him, she wrote that "if
+anything were to happen to Tennyson, the whole world should go into
+mourning."
+
+A project (said to have originated with Wordsworth) was launched to
+"modernize" Chaucer, in which Miss Barrett, Leigh Hunt, Monckton Milnes,
+Mr. Horne, and one or two others enthusiastically united, the only
+dissenter being Landor, who characteristically observed that any one who
+was fit to read Chaucer at all could read him in the original. Later on
+the co-operation of Browning, Tennyson, Talfourd, Bulwer, Mary Howitt, and
+the Cowden Clarkes was solicited and in part obtained. But Landor held
+firm, and of his beloved Chaucer he said: "I will have no hand in breaking
+his dun, but rich-painted glass, to put in thinner (if clearer) panes." A
+great deal of correspondence ensued in connection with this Herculean
+labor, most of which is of less interest to the general reader than it
+might well be to the literary antiquarian.
+
+The next special literary enthusiasm of Mr. Horne and Miss Barrett was the
+projection of a work of criticism, to be issued anonymously, and entitled
+"The New Spirit of the Age." They collaborated on the critique on
+Wordsworth and Leigh Hunt, and for the one on Landor Miss Barrett was
+mainly responsible, in which she says he "writes poetry for poets, and
+criticism for critics;... and as if poetry were not, in English, a
+sufficiently unpopular dead language, he has had recourse to writing
+poetry in Latin." She speaks of his "Pericles and Aspasia" and his
+"Pentameron" as "books for the world and for all time, complete in beauty
+of sentiment and subtlety of criticism." Two of Landor's works, very
+little known, the "Poems from the Arabic and Persian" and "A Satire upon
+Satirists," are here noted. "It will be delightful to me to praise
+Tennyson,--although, by Saint Eloy, I never imitated him," she writes to
+Mr. Horne; "and I take that oath because the _Quarterly_ was sure that if
+it had not been for him I should have hung a lady's hair 'blackly' instead
+of 'very blackly.'" Miss Mitford was somewhat concerned with this
+hazardous venture, but she had no desire to discuss Dickens, as she "could
+not admire his love of low life!" Miss Barrett's appreciation of Tennyson
+is much on record. She finds him "a divine poet." Monckton Milnes, whose
+first work she liked extremely, seemed to her in his later poems as
+wanting in fire and imagination, and as being too didactic. Barry
+Cornwall's lyrics impressed her "like embodied music." Mr. Horne finally
+wrote the critique on Dickens, and of it Miss Barrett said: "I think the
+only omission of importance in your admirable essay is the omission of the
+influence of the French school of imaginative literature upon the mind of
+Dickens, which is manifest and undeniable.... Did you ever read the
+powerful _Trois Jours d'un Condamné_, and will you confront that with the
+tragic saliences of 'Oliver Twist'?... We have no such romance writer as
+Victor Hugo ... George Sand is the greatest female genius of the world, at
+least since Sappho." (At this time George Eliot had not appeared.) Miss
+Barrett appreciatively alludes to Sir Henry Taylor (the author of "Philip
+van Artevelde") as "an infidel in poetry," and to the author of "Festus"
+as "a man of great thoughts." She finds part of the poem "weak," but,
+"when all is said," she continues, "what poet-stuff remains! what power!
+what fire of imagination, worth the stealing of Prometheus!"
+
+In relation to some strictures on Carlyle, Miss Barrett vivaciously
+replies that his object is to discover the sun, not to specify the
+landscape, and that it would be a strange reproach to bring against the
+morning star that it does not shine in the evening.
+
+The idea of a lyrical drama, "Psyche Apocalypte," was entertained by Mr.
+Horne and Miss Barrett, but, fortunately, no fragment of it was
+materialized into public light. There was a voluminous correspondence
+between them concerning this possible venture. Meanwhile Miss Barrett's
+poems won success past her "expectation or hope. _Blackwood's_ high help
+was much," she writes, "and I continue to have the kindest letters from
+unknown readers.... The American publisher has printed fifteen hundred
+copies. If I am a means of ultimate loss to him, I shall sit in
+sackcloth."
+
+In another of her letters to Mr. Horne we read that Wordsworth is in a
+fever because of a projected railroad through the Lake Country, and that
+Carlyle calls Harriet Martineau "quite mad," because of her belief in
+Mesmerism. "For my own part," adds Miss Barrett, "I am not afraid to say
+that I almost believe in Mesmerism, and quite believe in Harriet
+Martineau." She is delighted that Horne's "Orion" is to be published in
+New York. "I love the Americans," she asserts, "a noble and cordial
+people."
+
+Miss Barrett remained for three years in Torquay, the climate being
+regarded as better for her health. But the tragedy of her life took place
+there in the drowning of her brother Edward, who went out one day with two
+friends in a boat and never returned. Three days later the boat was found
+floating, overturned, and the bodies of the three young men were
+recovered. This sad event occurred in the August of 1840, and it was more
+than a year before she was able to resume her literary work and her
+correspondence. In the September of 1841 she returned to London, and in a
+letter to Mr. Boyd soon after she replied to his references to Gregory as
+a poet, saying she has not much admiration even for his grand _De
+Virginitate_, and chiefly regards him as one who is only poetical in
+prose.
+
+Miss Barrett's delicacy of health through all these years has been so
+universally recorded (and, according to her own words, so exaggerated)
+that it needs no more than passing allusion here. So far as possible she
+herself ignored it, and while it was always a factor to be reckoned with,
+yet her boundless mental energy tided her over illness and weakness to a
+far greater degree than has usually been realized. "My time goes to the
+best music when I read or write," she says, "and whatever money I can
+spend upon my own pleasures flows away in books."
+
+Elizabeth Barrett was the most sympathetic and affectionate of friends,
+and her devotion to literature resulted in no mere academic and abnormal
+life. Her letters are filled with all the little inquiries and interests
+of household affection and sweetness of sympathy with the personal matters
+of relatives and friends, and if those are not here represented, it is
+simply that they are in their nature colloquial, and to be taken for
+granted rather than repeated for reading, when so long separated by time
+from the conditions and circumstances that called them forth. She was glad
+to return from Torquay to her family again. "Papa's domestic comfort is
+broken up by the separation," she said, "and the associations of Torquay
+lie upon me, struggle against them as I may, like a nightmare.... Part of
+me is worn out; but the poetical part--that is, the love of poetry--is
+growing in me as freshly every day. Did anybody ever love poetry and stop
+in the middle? I wonder if any one ever could?... besides, I am becoming
+better. Dear Mr. Boyd," she entreats, "do not write another word about my
+illness either to me or to others. I am sure you would not willingly
+disturb me. I can't let ... prescribe anything for me except her own
+affection." These words illustrate the spirit in which Miss Barrett
+referred to her own health. No one could be more remote from a morbid
+invalidism too often associated with her.
+
+One of her first efforts after her return from Torquay was to send to the
+_Athenæum_ some Greek translations, which, to her surprise, were accepted,
+and she writes to Mr. Boyd that she would enclose to him the editor's
+letter "if it were legible to anybody except people used to learn reading
+from the Pyramids." It must have been due to a suggestion from the editor
+of the _Athenæum_ at this time that she wrote her noble and affluent essay
+on "The Greek Christian Poets," which is perhaps her finest work in prose.
+Something in the courteous editorial note suggested this to her, and she
+discusses the idea with Mr. Boyd.
+
+Mr. Dilke was then the editor of the _Athenæum_. He quite entered into the
+idea of this essay, only begging Miss Barrett to keep away from theology.
+Mr. Dilke also suggests that she write a review of English poetical
+literature, from Chaucer to contemporary times, and this initiated her
+essay called "The Book of the Poets." For her Greek review she desired a
+copy of the _Poetæ Christiani_, but found the price (fourteen guineas)
+ruinous. But whether she had all the needful data or not, the first paper
+was a signal success, and she fancied that some _bona avis_, as good as a
+nightingale, had shaken its wings over her. Of the three Greek tragedians,
+Æschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles, Elizabeth Barrett had read every line.
+Plato she loved and read exhaustively; of Aristotle at this time she had
+read his Ethics, Poetics, and his work on Rhetoric, and of Aristophanes a
+few, only, of his plays. But Miss Barrett was also a great novel-reader,
+keeping her "pillows stuffed with novels," as she playfully declared. Her
+room, in the upper part of the house, revealed the haunt of the scholar.
+Upon a bracket the bust of Homer looked down; her bookcase showed one
+entire shelf occupied by the Greek poets; another relegated wholly to the
+English poets; and philosophy, ethics, science, and criticism were
+liberally represented. A bust of Chaucer companioned that of Homer. By her
+sofa nestled Flush, her dog, Miss Mitford's gift.
+
+It was in this year of 1841 that there penetrated into her atmosphere and
+consciousness the first intimation of Robert Browning. "Pippa Passes" had
+just been published, and John Kenyon, ever alert to bring any happiness
+into the lives of his friends (Kenyon, "the joy-giver," as he was well
+termed), suggested introducing the young poet to her, but on the plea of
+her ill-health she declined. A little later, in a letter to Mr. Boyd, she
+mentions one or two comments made on her essay, "The Greek Christian
+Poets,"--that Mr. Horne, and also "Mr. Browning, the poet," had both, as
+she was told, expressed approval. "Mr. Browning is said to be learned in
+Greek," she adds, "especially the dramatists." So already the air begins
+to stir and tremble with the coming of him of whom in later days she
+wrote:
+
+  "I yield the grave for thy sake, and resign
+  My near sweet view of heaven for earth with thee."
+
+
+The entrancing thrill of that wonderful Wagner music that ushers in the
+first appearance of the knight in the music-drama of "Lohengrin" is
+typical of the vibrations that thrill the air in some etherial
+announcement of experiences that are on the very threshold, and which are
+recognized by a nature as sensitive and impressionable as was that of
+Elizabeth Barrett. A new element with its transfiguring power awaited her,
+and some undefined prescience of that
+
+  "... most gracious singer of high poems"
+
+whose music was to fall at her door
+
+  "... in folds of golden fulness"
+
+haunted her like "an odor from Dreamland sent."
+
+She pondered on
+
+                 "... how Theocritus had sung
+  Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years,"
+
+but she dared not dream that the "mystic Shape" that drew her backward,
+and whose voice spoke "in mastery," had come to lead her,--not to Death,
+but Love.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+1841-1846
+
+        "... If a man could feel,
+  Not one day in the artist's ecstasy,
+  But every day,--feast, fast, or working-day,
+  The spiritual significance burn through
+  The hieroglyphic of material shows,
+  Henceforward he would paint the globe with wings."
+
+
+"BELLS AND POMEGRANATES"--ARNOULD AND DOMETT--"A BLOT IN THE 'SCUTCHEON"--
+    MACREADY--SECOND VISIT TO ITALY--MISS BARRETT'S POETIC WORK--
+    "COLOMBE'S BIRTHDAY"--"LADY GERALDINE'S COURTSHIP"--"ROMANCES AND
+    LYRICS"--BROWNING'S FIRST LETTER TO MISS BARRETT--THE POETS MEET--
+    LETTERS OF ROBERT BROWNING AND ELIZABETH BARRETT--"LOVES OF THE
+    POETS"--VITA NUOVA.
+
+
+The appearance of "Bells and Pomegranates" made a deep impression on
+Elizabeth Barrett, as the numbers, opening with "Pippa Passes,"
+successively appeared between 1841 and 1846. Of "Pippa" she said she could
+find it in her heart to covet the authorship, and she felt all the
+combinations of effect to be particularly "striking and noble." In a paper
+that Miss Barrett wrote in these days for the _Athenæum_, critically
+surveying the poetic outlook of the time, she referred to Browning and
+Tennyson as "among those high and gifted spirits who would still work and
+wait." When this London journal reviewed (not too favorably) Browning's
+"Romances and Lyrics," Miss Barrett took greatly to heart the injustice
+that she felt was done him, and reverted to it in a number of personal
+letters, expressing her conviction that "it would be easier to find a more
+faultless writer than a poet of equal genius." An edition of Tennyson, in
+two volumes, came out, including the "Ulysses," "Morte d'Arthur,"
+"Locksley Hall," and "OEnone," of which she says no one quite appeals to
+her as does "OEnone," and she expresses her belief that philosophic
+thinking, like music, is always involved in high ideality of any kind.
+Wordsworth she insisted upon estimating from his best, not from his
+poorest work, and his "Ode" was to her so grand as to atone for a
+multitude of poetic sins. "I confess," she wrote to Boyd, "that he is not
+unfrequently heavy and dull, and that Coleridge has an intenser genius."
+To her cousin, Kenyon, Miss Barrett sent the manuscript of her poem, "The
+Dead Pan," which he showed to Browning, who wrote of it to Kenyon with
+ardent admiration. This note was sent to Miss Barrett, who displayed it to
+Horne that he might see the opinion of the poet whom they both admired.
+Still later, Horne published in his "New Spirit of the Age" sketches of
+several writers with their portraits; and those of Carlyle, Miss
+Martineau, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Browning, Miss Barrett had framed for
+her own room. She asked Kenyon if that of Browning were a good one.
+"Rather like," he replied. So here and there the Fates were invisibly at
+work, forging the subtle threads that were drawing the poets unconsciously
+nearer.
+
+It was the suggestion of Browning's publisher, Moxon, that "Bells and
+Pomegranates" might be issued in pamphlet form, appearing at intervals, as
+this plastic method would be comparatively inexpensive, and would also
+permit the series to be stopped at any time if its success was not of a
+degree to warrant continuance. The poet found his title, as he afterward
+explained in a letter to Miss Barrett, in Exodus, "... upon the hem of the
+robe thou shalt make pomegranates of blue and of purple, and of scarlet,
+and bells of gold between them round about." After "Pippa Passes" there
+followed "King Victor and King Charles," a number of Lyrics, "The Return
+of the Druses," "A Blot in the 'Scutcheon," "Luria," and "A Soul's
+Tragedy." On each of the title-pages the author was named as the writer of
+"Paracelsus," "Sordello" being ignored. Among the dedications of these
+several numbers those so honored included John Kenyon, Proctor, and
+Talfourd.
+
+Browning offered "A Blot in the 'Scutcheon" to Macready (whose stage
+fortunes at this period were not brilliant), with the remark that "The
+luck of the third venture is proverbial." The actor consulted Forster, who
+passed the play on to Dickens, to whom it deeply appealed. Under date of
+November 25, 1842, Dickens wrote of it to Forster in the most enthusiastic
+words, saying the reading of it had thrown him "into a perfect passion of
+sorrow," and that it was "full of genius, natural, and great thoughts,...
+and I swear it is a tragedy that must be played, and played by Macready,"
+continued the novelist. "And tell Browning that I believe from my soul
+there is no man living (and not many dead) who could produce such a work."
+Forster did not, however, administer this consolation to the young author,
+who was only to learn of Dickens's admiration thirty years later, when
+Forster's biography of him appeared. The story of the production of the
+play is told in a letter from Joseph Arnould to Alfred Domett (then in New
+Zealand), written under date of May, 1843, dated from Arnould's home in
+Victoria Square, Pimlico:
+
+    "As one must begin somewhere, suppose we take Browning.... In February
+    his play, 'A Blot in the 'Scutcheon,' was announced as forthcoming at
+    Drury Lane.... Meantime, judicious friends had a habit of asking when
+    the play was coming out...."[5]
+
+
+A long chapter of vexations is humorously described by Domett, who
+concludes his letter with this tribute to the play.
+
+    "... With some of the finest situations and grandest passages you can
+    conceive, it does undoubtedly want a sustained interest to the end of
+    the third act; in fact the whole of that act on the stage is a falling
+    off from the second, which I need not tell you is, for purposes of
+    performance, the most unpardonable fault. Still, it will no
+    doubt--nay, it must--have done this, viz., produced a higher opinion
+    than ever of Browning's genius and the great things he is yet to do,
+    in the minds not only of a clique, but of the general world of
+    readers. This man will go far yet...."
+
+
+While this vexation cancelled the friendly relations that had existed
+between Browning and Macready, it fostered the friendship between the poet
+and Helen Faucit (later Lady Martin), who remembered Browning's attitude
+"as full of generous sympathy" for the actors of the cast; while he
+recalled Miss Faucit's "perfect behavior as a woman, and her admirable
+playing, as the one gratifying factor" in the affair. But Browning was too
+noble by nature for any lasting resentment, and meeting Macready soon
+after the death of both his own wife, in Italy, and of Mrs. Macready, he
+could only grasp his old friend's hand and exclaim with emotion, "Oh,
+Macready!"
+
+In the autumn of 1844 Browning set forth for Italy on his second visit.
+Two years before his friend Domett had left England for New Zealand,
+commemorated by the poet in the lines,--
+
+  "How, forsooth, was I to know it
+  If Waring meant to glide away
+  Like a ghost at break of day."
+
+
+Browning landed at Naples, and there, according to Mrs. Orr, he became
+acquainted with a young Neapolitan, Signor Scotti, who took the
+bargaining of their tour upon himself, after they had agreed to travel
+together, "and now as I write," said Mr. Browning in a letter from his
+Naples hotel to his sister Sarianna, "I hear him disputing our bill. He
+does not see why we should pay for six wax candles when we have used only
+two." The pair wandered over the enchanting shores of all the Naples
+region, lingered in Sorrento, drove over the picturesque road to Amalfi,
+and listened to the song of the sirens along the shore. Their arrival in
+Rome was Browning's first sight of the Eternal City. Here Mr. Browning
+found an old friend, the Contessa Carducci, with whom the two passed most
+of their evenings. He made his poetic pilgrimage to the graves of Shelley
+and Keats, as do all later pilgrims, and he visited the grotto of Egeria
+in memory of Byron. He loitered in the old _chiesa_ near Santa Maria
+Maggiore, where the sixteenth century Bishop "ordered his tomb," and he
+visited Trelawney in Leghorn. There exists little record of this trip save
+in the poem "The Englishman in Italy," and his return to England through
+Germany is alike unrecorded.
+
+Six years had passed since the publication of "The Seraphim and Other
+Poems," and on Mr. Browning's arrival at home again, he found two new
+volumes of Miss Barrett's, entitled simply "Poems," in which were "A Drama
+of Exile," "Bertha in the Lane," "Catarina to Camoens," "A Vision of
+Poets," nearly all of the sonnets that she ever wrote save that immortal
+sequence, "Sonnets from the Portuguese," and "Lady Geraldine's Courtship."
+These volumes absolutely established her poetic rank with that of Tennyson
+and Browning. She "heard the nations praising her far off." While she had
+many expressions of grateful gladness for all this chorus of praise with
+hardly a dissenting voice, the verdict did not affect her own high
+standards. "I have written these poems as well as I could," she says, "and
+I hope to write others better. I have not reached my own ideal ... but I
+love poetry more than I love my own successes in it."
+
+Her love of absolute truth, and the absence of any petty self-love in her
+character, stand out in any study of her life. "Why, if you had told me
+that my books were without any value in your eyes, do you imagine that I
+should not have valued you, reverenced you ever after for your truth, so
+sacred a thing in friendship?" she writes to a friend.
+
+The reviews are eminently appreciative and satisfying. _Blackwood's_ gave
+a long critique in a special article, frankly pointing out faults, but
+asserting that her merits far outweighed her defects, and that her genius
+"was profound, unsullied, and without a flaw." The long poem, "A Drama of
+Exile" was pronounced the least successful of all, and the prime favorite
+was "Lady Geraldine's Courtship." Of this poem of ninety-two stanzas, with
+eleven more in its "Conclusion," thirty-five of the stanzas, or one
+hundred and forty-four lines, were written in one day.
+
+Though lack of health largely restricted Miss Barrett to her room, her
+sympathies and interests were world-wide. She read the reviews of the
+biography of Dr. Arnold, a work she desired to read, entire, and records
+that "Dr. Arnold must have been a man in the largest and noblest sense."
+She rejoices in the refutation of Puseyism that is offered in the
+_Edinburgh Review_; she reads "an admirable paper by Macaulay" in the same
+number; she comments on the news that Newman has united himself with the
+Catholic Church; and in one letter she writes that Mr. Horne has not
+returned to England and adds: "Mr. Browning is not in England, either, so
+that whatever you send for him must await his return from the east, or
+west, or south, wherever he is; Dickens is in Italy; even Miss Mitford
+talks of going to France, and the 'New Spirit of the Age' is a wandering
+spirit."
+
+In her "Lady Geraldine's Courtship" had occurred the lines:
+
+  "Or from Browning some 'Pomegranate,' which, if cut deep down the
+      middle,
+  Shows a heart within blood-tinctured, of a veined humanity."
+
+
+A certain consciousness of each other already stirred in the air for
+Browning and Miss Barrett, and still closer were the Fates drawing the
+subtle threads of destiny.
+
+It was in this November that Mrs. Jameson first came into Miss Barrett's
+life, coming to the door with a note, and "overcoming by kindness was let
+in." This initiated a friendship that was destined in the near future to
+play its salient part in the life of Elizabeth Barrett. In what orderly
+sequence the links of life appear, viewed retrospectively!
+
+She "gently wrangles" with Mr. Boyd for addressing her as "Miss Barrett,"
+deprecating such cold formality, and offering him his choice of her little
+pet name "Ba" or of Elizabeth.
+
+She reads Hans Christian Andersen's "Improvisatore," and in reply to some
+expressed wonder at her reading so many novels she avows herself "the most
+complete and unscrupulous romance reader" possible; and adds that her love
+of fiction began with her breath, and will end with it; "and it goes on
+increasing. On my tombstone may be written," she continued, "'_Ci gît_ the
+greatest novel reader in the world,' and nobody will forbid the
+inscription."
+
+And so the prelude of her life draws to a close, and the future is to be
+no more the mere living "with visions for her company," for now, in this
+January of 1845, she has a letter from Browning, and she writes: "I had a
+letter from Browning, the poet, last night, which threw me into
+ecstasies,--Browning, the author of 'Paracelsus,' and king of the
+mystics." Not long after she writes that she is getting deeper and deeper
+into correspondence with Robert Browning, and that they are growing to be
+the truest of friends. Lowell writes to Miss Barrett regarding her poems,
+though the letter does not seem to be anywhere on record, and she writes
+to Mr. Westwood that in her view Mr. Browning's power is of a very high
+order, and that he must read "Paracelsus." In its author she finds one who
+"speaks true oracles." She finds "Colombe's Birthday" exquisite, and
+"Pippa Passes" she "kneels to, with deepest reverence."
+
+The first letter of Browning to Miss Barrett was written on January 10 of
+this year (1845), and he began with the words: "I love your verses with
+all my heart, dear Miss Barrett." He enters into the "fresh strange music,
+the exquisite pathos, and true, brave thought" of her work; and reminds
+her that Kenyon once asked him if he would like to see Miss Barrett, but
+that she did not feel able, and he felt as if close to some world's
+wonder, but the half-opened door shut. Her reply, which is dated the next
+day, thanks him for his sympathy and offers him her gratitude, "agreeing
+that of all the commerce from Tyre to Carthage, the exchange of sympathy
+for gratitude is the most princely thing." And she craves a lasting
+obligation in that he shall suggest her master-faults in poetry. She does
+not pretend to any extraordinary meekness under criticism, and possibly
+might not be at all obedient to it, but she has such high respect for his
+power in Art, and his experience as an artist. She refers to Mr. Kenyon as
+her friend and helper, and her books' friend and helper, "critic and
+sympathizer, true friend at all hours!" and she adds that "while I live to
+follow this divine art of poetry ... I must be a devout student and
+admirer of your works."
+
+Browning is made very happy by her words, and he feels that his poor
+praise "was nearly as felicitously brought out as a certain tribute to
+Tasso, which amused me in Rome some weeks ago," he says. "In a neat
+penciling on the wall by his tomb at Sant' Onofrio--'_Alla cara
+memoria--di--Torquato Tasso--il Dottore Bernardini--offriva--il sequente
+Carme--tu_'--and no more; the good man, it would seem, breaking down with
+the over-load of love here! But my '_O tu_' was breathed out most
+sincerely, and now you have taken it in gracious part, the rest will come
+after." And then he must repeat (to himself) that her poetry must be
+infinitely more to him than his could be to her, "for you do what I have
+only hoped to do." And he hopes she will nevermore talk of "the honor" of
+his acquaintance, but he will joyfully wait for the delight of her
+friendship. And to his fear that she may hate letter-writing she replies
+suggesting that nobody likes writing to everybody, but it would be strange
+and contradictory if she were not always delighted to hear from and to
+write to him; and she can read any manuscript except the writing on the
+pyramids, and if he will only treat her _en bon camarade_ "without
+reference to the conventionalities of 'ladies and gentlemen'"; taking no
+thought for his sentences (or hers), "nor for your badd speling nor for
+mine," she is ready to sign and seal the contract of correspondence. And
+while she throws off the ceremony, she holds faster to the kindness. She
+is overjoyed with this cordial sympathy. "Is it true," she asks, "that I
+know so little of you? And is it true that the productions of an artist do
+not partake of his real nature? It is not true to my mind,--and therefore
+it is not true that I know little of you, except in so far as it is true
+that your greatest works are to come.... I think--if I may dare name
+myself with you in the poetic relation--that we both have high views of
+the Art we follow and steadfast purpose in the pursuit of it.... And that
+neither of us would be likely to be thrown from the course by the casting
+of any Atalanta ball of speedy popularity.
+
+"And after all that has been said and mused upon the anxiety experienced
+by the true artist,--is not the good immeasurably greater than the evil?
+For my part I sometimes wonder how, without such an object and purpose of
+life, people contrive to live at all."
+
+And her idea of happiness "lies deep in poetry and its associations." And
+he replies that what he has printed "gives no knowledge of me," and that
+he has never begun what he hopes he was born to begin and end--"R. B. a
+poem."
+
+"Do you know Tennyson?" she asks, "that is, with a face to face knowledge?
+I have great admiration for him," she continues. "In execution he is
+exquisite,--and in music a most subtle weigher out to the ear of fine
+airs." And she asks if he knows what it is to covet his neighbor's
+poetry,--not his fame, but his poetry. It delights her to hear of his
+garden full of roses and his soul full of comforts. She finds the
+conception of his Pippa "most exquisite, and altogether original."
+
+In one of Miss Barrett's letters a few weeks later there seems discernible
+a forecast of "Aurora Leigh," when she writes that her chief intention is
+the writing "of a sort of novel-poem," and one "as completely modern as
+'Geraldine's Courtship,' running into the midst of our conventions, and
+rushing into drawing-rooms and the like 'where angels fear to tread'; and
+so meeting face to face and without mask the Humanity of the age, and
+speaking the truth, as I conceive of it, out plainly." She is waiting for
+a story; she will not take one, because she likes to make her own. Here is
+without doubt the first conception of "Aurora Leigh."
+
+Touching on Life in another letter, she records her feeling that "the
+brightest place in the house is the leaning out of the window."
+
+Browning replies: "And pray you not to lean out of the window when my own
+foot is only on the stair."...
+
+"But I did not mean to strike a tragic chord," she replies; "indeed I did
+not. As to 'escaping with my life,' it was just a phrase ... for the rest
+I am essentially better ... and feel as if it were intended for me to live
+and not to die." And referring to a passage relating to Prometheus she
+asks: "And tell me, if Æschylus is not the divinest of all the divine
+Greek souls?" She continues:
+
+    "But to go back to the view of Life with the blind Hopes; you are not
+    to think--whatever I may have written or implied--that I lean either
+    to the philosophy or affectation which beholds the world through
+    darkness instead of light ... and after a course of bitter mental
+    discipline and long bodily seclusion I come out with two lessons
+    learned--the wisdom of cheerfulness and the duty of social
+    intercourse. Anguish has instructed me in joy, and solitude in
+    society.... What we call life is a condition of the soul, and the soul
+    must improve in happiness and wisdom, except by its own fault.... And
+    I do like to hear testimonies like yours, to happiness, and I feel it
+    to be a testimony of a higher sort than the obvious one.... Remember,
+    that as you owe your unscathed joy to God, you should pay it back to
+    His world. I thank you for some of it already."
+
+And she feels how kind he is,--how gently and kindly he speaks to her. In
+his next letter he alludes with much feeling to her idea of the
+poem-novel:
+
+    "The Poem you propose to make; the fresh, fearless, living work you
+    describe, is the only Poem to be undertaken now by you or any one who
+    is a poet at all; the only reality, only effective piece of service to
+    be rendered God or man; it is what I have been all my life intending
+    to do, and now shall be much nearer doing since you will be along with
+    me. And you can do it, I know and am sure,--so sure that I could find
+    it in my heart to be jealous of your stopping on the way even to
+    translate the Prometheus...."
+
+
+The lovers, for such they already are, however unconsciously to both, fall
+into a long discussion of Prometheus, and the Greek drama in general, and
+in another letter, with allusion to his begging her to take her own good
+time in writing, she half playfully proffers that it is her own bad time
+to which she must submit. "This implacable weather!" she writes; "this
+east wind that seems to blow through the sun and the moon!... There will
+be a May and June if we live to see such things," and then she speaks of
+seeing him besides, and while she recognizes it is morbid to shrink and
+grow pale in the spirit, yet not all her fine philosophy about social
+duties quite carries her through. But "if he thinks she shall not like to
+see him, he is wrong, for all his learning." What pathos of revelation of
+this brave, celestial spirit, tenanting the most fragile of bodies, is
+read in the ensuing passage:
+
+    "What you say of society draws me on to many comparative thoughts of
+    your life and mine. You seem to have drunken of the cup of life full
+    with the sun shining on it. I have lived only inwardly, or with sorrow
+    for a strong emotion. Before this seclusion of my illness I was
+    secluded still, and there are few of the youngest women in the world
+    who have not seen more, known more, of society, than I, who am hardly
+    to be called young now. I grew up in the country, had no social
+    opportunities, had my heart in books and poetry, and my experience in
+    reveries.... Books and dreams were what I lived in--and domestic life
+    seemed to buzz gently around, like the bees about the grass.... Why,
+    if I live on and escape this seclusion, do you not perceive that I
+    labor under signal disadvantages, that I am, in a manner, a blind
+    poet?... I have had much of the inner life ... but how willingly would
+    I exchange some of this ponderous, helpless knowledge of books for
+    some experience of life.... But grumbling is a vile thing, and we
+    should all thank God for our measures of life, and think them
+    enough.... Like to write? Of course, of course I do. I seem to live
+    while I write--it is life for me. Why, what is it to live? Not to eat
+    and drink and breathe,--but to feel the life in you down all the
+    fibers of being, passionately and joyfully....
+
+    "Ah, you tempt me with a grand vision of Prometheus!... I am inclined
+    to think that we want new forms.... The old gods are dethroned. Why
+    should we go back to the antique moulds? If it is a necessity of Art
+    to do this, then those critics are right who hold that Art is
+    exhausted.... I do not believe this; and I believe the so-called
+    necessity of Art to be the mere feebleness of the artist. Let us all
+    aspire rather to Life.... For there is poetry everywhere...."
+
+
+Miss Barrett writes to him, continuing the discussion of poetry as an Art,
+that she does not want "material as material, but that every life requires
+a full experience," and she has a profound conviction that a poet is at a
+lamentable disadvantage if he has been shut from most of the outer aspects
+of life. And he, replying, deprecates a little the outward life for a
+poet, with amusing references to a novel of D'Israeli's, where, "lo,
+dinner is done, and Vivian Grey is here, and Violet Fane there, and a
+detachment of the party is drafted off to catch butterflies." But still he
+partly agrees, and feels that her Danish novel ("The Improvisatore") must
+be full of truth and beauty, and "that a Dane should write so, confirms me
+in a belief that Italy is stuff for the use of the North and no more--pure
+Poetry there is none, as near as possible none, in Dante, even;... and
+Alfieri,... with a life of travel, writes you some fifteen tragedies as
+colorless as salad grown under a garden glass...." But she--if she asks
+questions about novels it is because she wants to see him by the refracted
+lights, as well as by the direct ones; and Dante's poetry--"only material
+for northern rhymers?" She must think of that before she agrees with him.
+
+As for Browning, he bids her remember that he writes letters to no one but
+her; but there is never enough of telling her.... And she, noting his
+sitting up in the morning till six, and sleeping only till nine, wants to
+know "how 'Lurias' can be made out of such ungodly imprudences? And what
+is the reasonableness of it," she questions, "when we all know that
+thinking, dreaming, creative people, like yourself, have two lives to bear
+instead of one, and therefore ought to sleep more than others"; and he is
+anticipating the day when he shall see her with his own eyes, and now a
+day is named on which he will call, and he begs her not to mind his coming
+in the least, for if she does not feel able to see him he will come again,
+and again, as his time is of no importance.
+
+It was on the afternoon of May 20 (1845) that Robert Browning and
+Elizabeth Barrett first met, and of them it could almost have been said,
+in words ascribed to Michael Angelo for Vittoria Colonna,--
+
+    "We are the only two, that, face to face,
+  Do know each other, as God doth know us both."
+
+
+It is said that the first letter of Browning's to her after this meeting
+is the only one destroyed of all this wonderful correspondence; and this
+was such a letter as could only be interpreted into a desire for marriage,
+which she, all tender thoughtfulness always for others, characteristically
+felt would be fatal to his happiness because of her invalid state. He
+begged her to return the letter, and he then destroyed it; and again
+pleaded that their friendship and intellectual comradeship should
+continue. "Your friendship and sympathy will be dear and precious to me
+all my life, if you indeed leave them with me so long, or so little," she
+writes; and she utterly forbids any further expression or she must do this
+"to be in my own eyes and before God a little more worthy, or a little
+less unworthy, of a generosity...." And he discreetly veils his ardors for
+the time, and the wonderful letters run on.
+
+
+[Illustration: MONUMENT TO MICHAEL ANGELO, BY VASARI
+
+CHURCH OF SANTA CROCE.
+
+    "_They are safe in heaven...._
+  _The Michaels and Rafaels...._"
+
+Old Pictures in Florence.]
+
+
+He is writing "The Flight of the Duchess," and sending it to her by
+installments; she finds it "past speaking of," and she also refers to
+"exquisite pages" of Landor's in the "Pentameron." And poems which he has
+left with her,--she must have her own gladness from them in her own way.
+And did he go to Chelsea, and hear the divine philosophy?
+
+Apparently he did, for he writes:
+
+    "Yes, I went to Chelsea and found dear Carlyle alone--his wife is in
+    the country where he will join her as soon as the book's last proof
+    sheets are corrected.... He was all kindness, and talked like his own
+    self while he made me tea--and would walk as far as Vauxhall Bridge
+    with me on my way home."
+
+
+She writes:
+
+    "I had a letter yesterday from Charles Hemans, the son of Felicia, ...
+    who says his mother's memory is surrounded to him 'with almost a
+    divine lustre,'... and is not that better than your tradition about
+    Shelley's son? and is it not pleasant to know that the noble,
+    pure-hearted woman, the Vittoria Colonna of our country, should be so
+    loved and comprehended by one, at least, of her own house?"
+
+
+Under date of August 25, Miss Barrett has been moved to write out the
+pathetic story of her brother Edward's death. He had accompanied her to
+Torquay,--he, "the kindest, the noblest, the dearest, and when the time
+came for him to return I, weakened by illness, could not master my spirits
+or drive back my tears," and he then decided not to leave her. "And ten
+days from that day," she continued, "the boat left the shore which never
+returned--and he had left me! For three days we waited,--oh, that awful
+agony of three days!... Do not notice what I have written to you, my
+dearest friend. I have never said so much to a living being--I never could
+speak or write of it...."
+
+But he writes her that "better than being happy in her happiness, is it
+to participate in her sorrow." And the very last day of that August he
+writes that he has had such power over himself as to keep silent ... but
+"Let me say now--this only once,--that I loved you from my soul, and gave
+you my life, as much of it as you would take, and all that ... is
+independent of any return on your part." She assures him that he has
+followed the most generous of impulses toward her, "yet I cannot help
+adding that, of us two, yours has not been quite the hardest part." She
+confesses how deeply she is affected by his words, "but what could I
+speak," she questions, "that would not be unjust to you?... Your life! if
+you gave it to me and I put my whole heart into it, what should I put in
+but anxiety, and more sadness than you were born to? What could I give you
+which it would not be ungenerous to give?"
+
+There was a partial plan that Miss Barrett should pass that next winter in
+Pisa, but owing to the strange and incalculable disposition of her father,
+who, while he loved her, was singularly autocratic in his treatment, the
+plan was abandoned. All this sorrow may have contributed to her confession
+to Browning that no man had ever been to her feelings what he was; and
+that if she were different in some respects she would accept the great
+trust of his happiness.... "But we may be friends always," she continues,
+"and cannot be so separated that the knowledge of your happiness will not
+increase mine.... Worldly thoughts these are not at all, there need be no
+soiling of the heart with any such;... you cannot despise the gold and
+gauds of the world more than I do,... and even if I wished to be very
+poor, in the world's sense of poverty, I could not, with three or four
+hundred a year, of which no living will can dispossess me. And is not the
+chief good of money, the being free from the need of thinking of it?" But
+he, perfect in his beautiful trust and tenderness, was "joyfully
+confident" that the way would open, and he thanks God that, to the utmost
+of his power, he has not been unworthy of having been introduced to her.
+He is "no longer in the first freshness of his life" and had for years
+felt it impossible that he should ever love any woman. But he will wait.
+That she "cannot dance like Cerito" does not materially disarrange his
+plan! And by the last of those September days she confesses that she is
+his "for everything but to do him harm," he has touched her so profoundly,
+and now "none, except God and your own will, shall interpose between you
+and me." And he answered her in such words as these:
+
+    "When I come back from seeing you and think over it all, there is
+    never a least word of yours I could not occupy myself with...."
+
+
+In a subsequent letter Elizabeth Barrett questions: "Could it be that
+heart and life were devastated to make room for you? if so it was well
+done." And she sends thanks to Browning's sister, Sarianna, for a copy of
+Landor's verses.
+
+And with all these gracious and tenderly exquisite personal matters, the
+letters are yet brilliant in literary allusion and criticism.
+
+During these three years from 1844 to 1847 were written the greater number
+of Miss Barrett's finest lyrics. Those two remarkable poems, "A Rhapsody
+of Life's Progress" and "Confessions"; "Loved Once"; "The Sleep" (the poem
+which was read at her burial in the lovely, cypress-crowned cemetery in
+Florence, and whose stanzas, set to music, were chanted by the choir in
+Westminster Abbey when the body of her husband was laid in the "Poets'
+Corner"), "The Dead Pan," and that most exquisite lyric of all, "Catarina
+to Camoens," were all written during this period.
+
+The title of the latter was but a transparent veil for her own feelings
+toward Robert Browning, and had she died in his absence, as Catarina did
+in that of Camoens, the words would have expressed her own feeling. What
+profound pathos is in the line,
+
+  "Death is near me,--and not _you_,"
+
+and how her own infinite sweetness of spirit is mirrored in the stanza,
+
+  "I will look out to his future;
+    I will bless it till it shine,
+  Should he ever be a suitor
+    Unto sweeter eyes than mine."
+
+And read her own self-revelation again in "A Denial,"
+
+  "We have met late--it is too late to meet,
+      O friend, not more than friend!"
+
+But the denial breaks down, and the last lines tell the story:
+
+  "Here's no more courage in my soul to say
+      'Look in my face and see.'"
+
+And in that last line of "Insufficiency,"
+
+  "I love thee so, Dear, that I only can leave thee."
+
+In "Question and Answer," in "Proof and Disproof," "A Valediction," "Loved
+Once," and "Inclusions," he who reads between the lines and has the magic
+of divination may read the story of her inner life.
+
+In the poem "Confessions" is touched a note of mystical, spiritual
+romance, spiritual tragedy, wholly of the inner life, that entirely
+differentiates from any other poetic expression of Mrs. Browning. In one
+stanza occur these lines:
+
+  "The least touch of their hands in the morning, I keep it by day and
+      by night;
+  Their least step on the stair, at the door, still throbs through me,
+      if ever so light."
+
+Even with all allowance for the imagination of the poet, these lines
+reveal such feeling, such tremulous susceptibility, that with less
+intellectual balance than was hers, combined with such lack of physical
+vigor, would almost inevitably have resulted in failure of poise. The
+current of spiritual energy was so strong with Elizabeth Barrett as to
+largely take the place of greater physical strength. That she never
+relapsed into the conditions of morbid invalidism is a marvel, and it is
+also an impressive testimony to the power of spiritual energy to control
+and determine physical conditions.
+
+All through that summer the letters run on, daily, semi-daily. Of his work
+Browning writes that he shall be "prouder to begin one day,--may it be
+soon!--with your hand in mine from the beginning." Miss Barrett, referring
+to the Earl of Compton, who is reported from Rome as having achieved some
+prominence as a painter, proceeds to say:
+
+    "People in general would rather be Marquises than Roman artists,
+    consulting their own wishes and inclination. I, for my part, ever
+    since I could speak my mind and knew it, always openly and inwardly
+    preferred the glory of those who live by their heads, to the opposite
+    glory of those who carry other people's arms. So much for glory.
+    Happiness goes the same way to my fancy. There is something
+    fascinating to me in that Bohemian way of living.... All the
+    conventions of society cut so close and thin, that the soul can see
+    through.... Beyond, above. It is real life as you say ... whether at
+    Rome or elsewhere. I am very glad that you like simplicity in habits
+    of life--it has both reasonableness and sanctity.... I am glad that
+    you--who have had temptation enough, more than enough, I am sure, in
+    every form--have lived in the midst of this London of ours, close to
+    the great social vortex, yet have kept so safe, and free, and calm,
+    and pure from the besetting sins of our society."
+
+
+Browning, in one letter, alluding to the prevailing stupidity of the idea
+that genius and domestic happiness are incompatible, says: "We will live
+the real answer, will we not?... A man of genius mistreats his wife; well,
+take away the genius,--does he so instantly improve?"
+
+Of the attitude of his family toward their marriage he writes:
+
+    "My family all love you, dearest,--you cannot conceive my father's and
+    mother's childlike faith in goodness--and my sister is very
+    high-spirited, and quick of apprehension--so as to seize the true
+    point of the case at once.... Last night I asked my father, who was
+    absorbed over some old book, if he should not be glad to see his new
+    daughter?--to which he, starting, replied, 'Indeed I shall'; with such
+    a fervor as to make my mother laugh,--not abated by his adding: 'And
+    how I should be glad of her seeing Sarianna!'"
+
+And she writes:
+
+    "Shall we go to Greece, then, Robert? Let us, if you like it. When we
+    have used a little the charm of your Italy,... I should like to see
+    Athens with my living eyes.... Athens was in all the dreams I dreamed,
+    before I knew you. Why should we not see Athens, and Egypt, too, and
+    float down the mystical Nile, and stand in the shadow of the Pyramids?
+    All of it is more possible now, than walking up the street seemed to
+    me last year."
+
+And he writes that he always felt her "Wine of Cyprus" poem to fill his
+heart "with unutterable desires."
+
+To book-lovers the question as to how many books may be taken on a
+journey, or what volumes, indeed, may be left behind, is a vital one. The
+reader will smile sympathetically at Miss Barrett's consultation with
+Browning as to whether, if they do "achieve the peculiar madness of going
+to Italy," they could take any books? And whether it would be well to so
+arrange that they should not take duplicates? He advises the narrowest
+compass for luggage. "We can return for what we want, or procure it
+abroad," he says, made wise by his two Italian journeys; and he adds:
+
+    "I think the fewer books we take the better; they take up room,--and
+    the wise way always seemed to me to read at home, and open one's eyes
+    and see abroad. A critic somewhere mentioned that as my
+    characteristic--there were two other poets he named placed in novel
+    circumstances ... in a great wood, for instance, Mr. Trench would
+    begin opening books to see how woods were treated ... the other man
+    would set to writing poetry forthwith,--and R. B. would sit still and
+    learn how to write after! A pretty compliment, I thought that. But,
+    seriously, there must be a great library at Pisa (with that
+    University) and abroad they are delighted to facilitate such
+    matters.... I have read in a chamber of the Doges' palace at Venice
+    painted all over by Tintoretto, walls and ceiling, and at Rome there
+    is a library with a learned priest always kept ready 'to solve any
+    doubts that may arise.'"
+
+
+Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett were married on September 12, 1846,
+in the church of St. Pancras, Marylebone, the only witnesses being his
+cousin, James Silverthorne, and her maid, Wilson. To have taken her
+sisters into her confidence would have been to expose them to the fairly
+insane wrath of her father. "I hate and loathe everything which is
+clandestine--we both do, Robert and I," said Mrs. Browning later; but this
+was the only possible way. Had Mr. Browning spoken to her father in the
+usual manner, "he would have been forbidden the house without a moment's
+scruple," she explained to a friend; "and I should have been incapacitated
+from any after exertion by the horrible scenes to which, as a thing of
+course, I should have been exposed.... I cannot bear some words. In my
+actual state of physical weakness, it would have been the sacrifice of my
+whole life--of my convictions, of my affections, and, above all, of what
+the person dearest to me persisted in calling his life, and the good of
+it--if I had observed that 'form.' Therefore I determined not to observe
+it, and I consider that in not doing so, I sinned against no duty. That I
+was _constrained_ to act clandestinely, and did not _choose_ to do so, God
+is my witness. Also, up to the very last, we stood in the light of day for
+the whole world, if it please, to judge us. I never saw him out of the
+Wimpole Street house. He came twice a week to see me, openly in the sight
+of all."
+
+In no act of her life did Mrs. Browning more impressively reveal her good
+sense than in this of her marriage. "I had long believed such an act," she
+said, "the most strictly personal of one's life,--to be within the rights
+of every person of mature age, man or woman, and I had resolved to
+exercise that right in my own case by a resolution which had slowly
+ripened. All the other doors of life were shut to me, and shut me as in a
+prison, and only before this door stood one whom I loved best and who
+loved me best, and who invited me out through it for the good's sake he
+thought I could do him."... To a friend she explained her long refusal to
+consent to the marriage, fearing that her delicate health would make it
+"ungenerous" in her to yield to his entreaty; but he replied that
+
+    "he would not tease me, he would wait twenty years if I pleased, and
+    then, if life lasted so long for both of us, then, when it was ending,
+    perhaps, I might understand him and feel that I might have trusted
+    him.... He preferred, he said, of free and deliberate choice, to be
+    allowed to sit only an hour a day by my side, to the fulfillment of
+    the brightest dream which should exclude me, in any possible world."
+
+She continues:
+
+    "I tell you so much that you may see the manner of man I had to do
+    with, and the sort of attachment which for nearly two years has been
+    drawing and winning me. I know better than any in the world, indeed,
+    what Mr. Kenyon once unconsciously said before me, that 'Robert
+    Browning is great in every thing.'... Now may I not tell you that his
+    genius, and all but miraculous attainments, are the least things in
+    him, the moral nature being of the very noblest, as all who ever knew
+    him admit."
+
+
+After the marriage ceremony Mrs. Browning drove with her maid to the home
+of Mr. Boyd, resting there, as if making a morning call on a familiar
+friend, until joined by her sisters, who took her for a little drive on
+Hampstead Heath. For five days she remained in her father's house, and
+during this time Browning could not bring himself to call and ask for his
+wife as "Miss Barrett," so they arranged all the details of their journey
+by letter. On September 19 they left for Paris, and the last one of these
+immortal letters, written the evening before their departure, from Mrs.
+Browning to her husband, contains these words:
+
+    "By to-morrow at this time I shall have you, only, to love me, my
+    beloved! You, only! As if one said, God, only! And we shall have Him
+    beside, I pray of Him!"
+
+With her maid, Mrs. Browning walked out of her father's house the next
+day, meeting her husband at a bookseller's around the corner of the
+street, and they drove to the station, leaving for Southampton to catch
+the night boat to Havre.
+
+Never could the world have understood the ineffable love and beauty and
+nobleness of the characters of both Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
+had these letters been withheld from the public. Quite aside from the
+deeper interest of their personal revelation,--the revelation of such
+nobleness and such perfect mutual comprehension and tenderness of sympathy
+as are here revealed,--the pages are full of interesting literary allusion
+and comment, of wit, repartee, and of charm that defies analysis. It was a
+wise and generous gift when the son of the poets, Robert Barrett
+Browning, gave these wonderful letters to the reading public. The supreme
+test of literature is that which contributes to the spiritual wealth of
+the world. Measured by this standard, these are of the highest literary
+order. No one can fail to realize how all that is noblest in manhood, all
+that is holiest in womanhood, is revealed in this correspondence.
+
+Edmund Clarence Stedman, after reading these letters, said: "It would have
+been almost a crime to have permitted this wonderful, exceptional
+interchange of soul and mind, between these two strong, 'excepted' beings,
+to leave no trace forever."
+
+Robert Barrett Browning, in referring to his publication of this
+correspondence in a conversation with the writer of this volume, remarked
+that he really had no choice in the matter, as the Apochryphal legends and
+myths and improvisations that had even then begun to weave themselves
+about the remarkable and unusual story of the acquaintance, courtship, and
+marriage of his parents, could only be dissipated by the simple truth, as
+revealed in their own letters.
+
+Their love took its place in the spiritual order; it was a bond that made
+itself the mystic force in their mutual development and achievement; and
+of which the woman, whose reverence for the Divine Life was the strongest
+element in her nature, could yet say,--
+
+  "And I, who looked for only God, found thee!"
+
+
+Life, as well as Literature, would have been the poorer had not Mr.
+Barrett Browning so wisely and generously enriched both by the publication
+of this correspondence.
+
+Not the least among the beautiful expressions that have been made by those
+spirits so touched to fine issues as to enter into the spiritual
+loveliness of these letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, is
+a sonnet by a New England poet, Rev. William Brunton,--a poet who "died
+too soon," but whose love for the poetry of the Brownings was as ardent as
+it was finely appreciative:
+
+  "Oh! dear departed saints of highest song,
+    Behind the screen of time your love lay hid,
+    Its fair unfoldment was in life forbid--
+  As doing such divine affection wrong,
+  But now we read with interest deep and strong,
+    And lift from off the magic jar the lid,
+    And lo! your spirit stands the clouds amid
+  And speaks to us in some superior tongue!
+
+  "Devotion such as yours is heavenly-wise,
+    And yet the possible of earth ye show;
+  Ye dwellers in the blue of summer skies,
+    Through you a finer love of love we know;
+  It is as if the angels moved with men,
+  And key of Paradise were found again!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+1846-1850
+
+  "And on her lover's arm she leant
+    And round her waist she felt it fold,
+  And far across the hills they went
+    To that new world which is the old.
+  Across the hills, and far away,
+    Beyond their utmost purple rim,
+  Beyond the night, beyond the day,
+    Through all the world she followed him."
+
+
+MARRIAGE AND ITALY--"IN THAT NEW WORLD"--THE HAUNTS OF PETRARCA--THE MAGIC
+    LAND--IN PISA--VALLOMBROSA--"UN BEL GIRO"--GUERCINO'S ANGEL--CASA
+    GUIDI--BIRTH OF ROBERT BARRETT BROWNING--BAGNI DI LUCCA--"SONNETS
+    FROM THE PORTUGUESE"--THE ENCHANTMENT OF ITALY.
+
+
+Paris, "and such a strange week it was," wrote Mrs. Browning to Miss
+Mitford; "whether in the body, or out of the body, I can scarcely tell.
+Our Balzac should be flattered beyond measure by my even thinking of him
+at all." The journey from London to Paris was not then quite the swift and
+easy affair it now is, the railroad between Paris and Havre not being then
+completed beyond Rouen; still, such an elixir of life is happiness that
+Mrs. Browning arrived in the French Capital feeling much better than when
+she left London. Mrs. Jameson had only recently taken leave of Miss
+Barrett on her sofa, and sympathetically offered to take her to Italy
+herself for the winter with her niece; Miss Barrett had replied: "Not only
+am I grateful to you, but happy to be grateful to you," but she had given
+no hint of the impending marriage. Mrs. Jameson's surprise, on receiving
+a note from Mrs. Browning, saying she was in Paris, was so great that her
+niece, Geraldine Bate (afterward Mrs. MacPherson of Rome), asserted that
+her aunt's amazement was "almost comical." Mrs. Jameson lost no time in
+persuading the Brownings to join her and her niece at their quiet pension
+in the Rue Ville l'Eveque, where they remained for a week,--this "strange
+week" to Mrs. Browning.
+
+In Paris they visited the galleries of the Louvre, but did little
+sight-seeing beyond, "being satisfied with the idea of Paris," she said.
+
+To a friend Mrs. Jameson wrote:
+
+    "I have also here a poet and a poetess--two celebrities who have run
+    away and married under circumstances peculiarly interesting, and such
+    as render imprudence the height of prudence. Both excellent; but God
+    help them! for I know not how the two poet heads and poet hearts will
+    get on through this prosaic world."
+
+
+As for ways and means, however, the Brownings were sufficiently provided.
+He had a modest independence, and she also had in her own right a little
+fortune of some forty thousand pounds, yielding three or four hundred
+pounds a year; but in the July preceding their marriage Browning, with his
+sensitive honor, insisted upon her making a will bequeathing this capital
+to her own family. In a letter to him dated July 27 of that summer the
+story of his insistence on this is revealed in her own words: "I will
+write the paper as you bid me.... You are noble in all things ... but I
+will not discuss it so as to tease you.... I send you the paper therefore,
+to that end, and only to that end...." The "document," by Browning's
+insistence, gave her property to her two sisters, in equal division, or,
+in case of their death, to the surviving brothers. Nothing less than this
+would satisfy Robert Browning.
+
+Meantime, there was the natural London comment. Wordsworth observed: "So
+Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett have gone off together! It is to be
+hoped they can understand each other, for no one else can."
+
+Mr. Kenyon wrote "the kindest letter" to them both, and pronounced them
+"justified to the uttermost," and to Mrs. Browning he said: "I considered
+that you had imperiled your life upon this undertaking and I still thought
+you had done wisely!" But by that magic alchemy of love and happiness Mrs.
+Browning only gained constantly in strength, and Mrs. Jameson pronounced
+them "wise people, whether wild poets or not."
+
+Among the interesting comments on the marriage was Joseph Arnould's letter
+to Alfred Domett, under date of November of that year. He wrote:
+
+    "... I think the last piece of news I told you of was Browning's
+    marriage to Miss Barrett. She is, you know, our present greatest
+    living English poetess: ... she has been in the most absolute and
+    enforced seclusion from society; cultivating her mind to a wonderful
+    amount of accomplishment, instructing herself in all languages,
+    reading Chrysostom in the original Greek, and publishing the best
+    metrical translation that has yet appeared of the 'Prometheus
+    Bound'--having also found time to write three volumes of poetry, the
+    last of which raised her name to a place second only to that of
+    Browning and Tennyson, amongst all those who are not repelled by
+    eccentricities of external form from penetrating into the soul and
+    quintessential spirit of poetry that quickens the mould into which the
+    poet has cast it. Well, this lady, so gifted, so secluded, so
+    tyrannized over, fell in love with Browning in the spirit before ever
+    she saw him in the flesh--in plain English, loved the writer, before
+    she knew the man. Imagine, you who know him, the effect which his
+    graceful bearing, high demeanor, and noble speech must have had on
+    such a mind when first she saw the man of her visions in the twilight
+    of her darkened room. She was at once in love as a poet-soul only can
+    be; and Browning, as by contagion or electricity, was no less from
+    the first interview wholly in love with her.... He is a glorious
+    fellow! Oh, I forgot to say that the _soi-disante_ invalid, once
+    emancipated from the paternal despotism, has had a wondrous revival,
+    or rather, a complete metamorphosis; walks, rides, eats, and drinks
+    like a young and healthy woman,--in fact, is a healthy woman of, I
+    believe, some five and thirty. But one word covers all; they are in
+    Love, who lends his own youth to everything."
+
+
+The journey from Paris to Italy, if less comfortable and expeditious than
+now, was certainly more romantic, and the Brownings, in company with Mrs.
+Jameson and her niece, fared forth to Orleans, and thence to Avignon,
+where they rested for two days, making a poetic pilgrimage to Vaucluse,
+where Petrarca had sought solitude. "There at the very source of the
+'_chiare, fresche e dolci acque_,'" records Mrs. MacPherson in her
+biography of Mrs. Jameson, "Mr. Browning took his wife up in his arms, and
+carrying her across through the shallow, curling waters, seated her on a
+rock that rose throne-like in the middle of the stream. Thus Love and
+Poetry took a new possession of the spot immortalized by Petrarca's
+fancy."
+
+From Marseilles they sailed to Livorno (Leghorn), the port only a few
+miles from Pisa. The voyage was a delight to Mrs. Browning. She was
+enchanted with the beautiful panorama of the Riviera as they sailed down
+the coast, where the terraces of mountains rise, with old castles and
+ruins often crowning their summits, and the white gleam of the hill-towns
+against a background of blue sky. All the Spezzia region was haunted by
+memories of Shelley; Lerici, where last he had lived, was plainly in view,
+and they gazed sadly at Viareggio, encircled by pine woods and mountains,
+where the body of the poet had been found. In Pisa they took rooms in the
+Collegio Fernandino, in the Piazza del Duomo, in that corner of Pisa
+wherein are grouped the Cathedral, the Baptistery, the Leaning Tower, and
+the Campo Santo, all in this consummate beauty of silence and
+seclusion,--a splendor of abandoned glory. All the stir of life (if,
+indeed, one may dream of life in Pisa) is far away on the other side of
+the city; to this corner is left the wraith-like haunted atmosphere, where
+only shadows flit over the grass, and the sunset reflections linger on the
+Tower. A statue of Cosimo di Medici was near; the Lanfranchi palace, where
+Byron had lived, was not far away, on the banks of the Arno. They quite
+preferred the Duomo and the Campo Santo to social festivities, and
+Professor Ferrucci offered them all the hospitalities of the University
+library. They had an apartment of four rooms, "matted and carpeted,"
+coffee and rolls in the morning, dinner at the Trattoria, "thrushes and
+chianti with a marvelous cheapness, no trouble, no cook, no kitchen; the
+prophet Elijah, or the lilies of the field, took as little thought for
+their dining," writes Mrs. Browning, "and it exactly suits us. At nine we
+have our supper of roast chestnuts and grapes.... My head goes round
+sometimes. I was never happy before in my life.... And when I am so good
+as to let myself be carried up-stairs, and so angelical as to sit still on
+the sofa, and so considerate as not to put my foot into a puddle, why, my
+duty is considered done to a perfection worthy all adoration.... Mrs.
+Jameson and Geraldine are staying in the hotel, and we manage to see them
+every day; so good and true and affectionate she is, and so much we shall
+miss her when she goes.... Our present residence we have taken for six
+months, but we have dreams, and we discuss them like soothsayers over the
+evening grapes and chestnuts."
+
+That in London Mrs. Jameson, on her first call on Miss Barrett, should
+have so winningly insisted on being admitted to her room as to be
+successful, almost to Miss Barrett's own surprise, seems, when seen in
+connection with the way in which Fate was to throw them together
+afterward, in Italy, to have been one of those "foreordained" happenings
+of life.
+
+They heard a musical mass for the dead in the Campo Santo; they walked
+under orange trees with golden fruit hanging above their heads; they took
+drives to the foot of the mountains, and watched the reflections in the
+little lake of Ascuno. Mrs. Browning, from her windows, could see the
+cathedral summit glitter whitely, between the blue sky and its own yellow
+marble walls. Beautiful and tender letters came to them both from Mr.
+Kenyon, and they heard that Carlyle had said that he hoped more from
+Robert Browning, for the people of England, than from any other living
+English writer. All of these things entered into the very fiber of their
+Pisan days. Pisa seemed to her a beautiful town,--it could not be less,
+she felt, with Arno and its palaces, and it was to her full of repose, but
+not desolate. Meantime, Mr. Browning was preparing for a new edition of
+his collected poems.
+
+Curiously, all the biographers of Robert Browning have recorded that it
+was during this sojourn in Pisa that the "Sonnets from the Portuguese"
+were first made known to him. Dr. Dowden quotes the story as given by Mr.
+Edmund Gosse, and Mr. Gosse cites Browning himself as his authority. Yet
+there was some mistake, as the Sonnets were not seen by Mr. Browning till
+some time later.
+
+Robert Barrett Browning, in Florence, in the spring of 1910, in reply to a
+question asked by the writer of this book in regard to the accuracy of
+this impression, replied that both Mr. Gosse and Dr. Dowden were mistaken;
+as his mother did not show these "Sonnets" to his father until the summer
+of 1849, when they were at Bagni di Lucca. Mr. Gosse must in some way have
+mistaken Mr. Browning's words, and the error has perpetuated itself
+through every successive biography of the poet.
+
+The first home of the Brownings in Florence was in an apartment near
+Santa Maria Novella, where the Italian sunshine burned fiercely, and where
+Mrs. Browning exclaimed that she began to comprehend the possibility of
+St. Lawrence's ecstasies on the gridiron. "Yet there have been cool
+intermissions," she wrote, "and as we have spacious and airy rooms, and as
+we can step out of the window on a balcony terrace which is quite private,
+and swims over with moonlight in the evenings, and as we live upon
+watermelons, and iced water, and figs, and all manner of fruit, we bear
+the heat with angelic patience."
+
+There was a five days' interlude at Vallombrosa, which the poets vainly
+entreated the monks to prolong to two months, but the brethren would have
+none of the presence of two women,--Mrs. Browning and her maid, Wilson. So
+they perforce left these fascinating hills, "a sea of hills looking alive
+among the clouds." Still further up above the monastery was the old
+Hermitage now transformed into a hotel. It was here that Migliorotti
+passed many years, asserting that he could only think of it as Paradise,
+and thus it came to be known as Paradisino, the name it still bears. Far
+below in a dim distance lies Florence, with her domes and towers on which
+the sunshine glitters, or the white moonlight of the Val d'Arno shines;
+and on every hand are the deep valleys and crevasses, the Val di Sieve,
+the Val di Casentino, and the height of San Miniato in Alpe. Castles and
+convents, or their ruins, abound; and here Dante passed, and there St.
+Benedict, and again is the path still holy with the footsteps of St.
+Francis. The murmuring springs that feed the Arno are heard in the hills;
+and the vast solitudes of the wood, with their ruined chapels and shrines,
+made this sojourn to the Brownings something to be treasured in memory
+forever. They even wandered to that beautiful old fifteenth-century
+church, Santa Maria delle Grazie Vallombrosella, "a daughter of the
+monastery of Vallombrosa," where were works of Robbia, and saw the blue
+hills rise out of the green forests in their infinite expanse.
+
+
+[Illustration: OLD MONASTERY AT VALLOMBROSA
+
+  "_And Vallombrosa we two went to see_
+  _Last June beloved companion..._"
+
+Casa Guidi Windows.]
+
+
+When they fared forth for Vallombrosa, it was at four o'clock in the
+morning, Mrs. Browning being all eagerness and enthusiasm for this
+matutinal pilgrimage. Reaching Pelago, their route wound for five miles
+along a "_via non rotabile_," through the most enchanting scenery, to
+Pontassieve.
+
+    "Oh! such mountains," wrote Mrs. Browning of this
+    never-to-be-forgotten journey, "as if the whole world were alive with
+    mountains--such ravines--black in spite of flashing waters in
+    them--such woods and rocks--traveled in basket sledges drawn by four
+    white oxen--Wilson and I and the luggage--and Robert riding step by
+    step. We were four hours doing the five miles, so you may fancy what
+    rough work it was. Whether I was most tired or charmed was a _tug_
+    between body and soul.
+
+    "The worst was that," she continued, "there being a new abbot at the
+    monastery--an austere man, jealous of his sanctity and the approach of
+    women--our letter, and Robert's eloquence to boot, did nothing for us,
+    and we were ingloriously and ignominiously expelled at the end of five
+    days."
+
+
+While the Brownings were in Vallombrosa Arnould wrote to Alfred Domett:
+
+    "Browning is spending a luxurious year in Italy--is, at this present
+    writing, with his poetess bride dwelling in some hermit hut in
+    Vallombrosa, where the Etruscan shades high overarched embower. He
+    never fails to ask pressingly about you, and I give him all your
+    messages. I would to God he would purge his style of
+    obscurities,--that the wide world would, and the gay world and even
+    the less illuminated part of the thinking world, know his greatness
+    even as we do. I find myself reading 'Paracelsus' and the 'Dramatic
+    Lyrics' more often than anything else in verse."
+
+
+They descended, perforce, into Florence again, burning sunshine and all,
+the abbot of the monastery having someway confounded their pleadings with
+the temptation of St. Anthony, as something to be as heroically resisted.
+They set up their household gods in the shades of the Via delle Belle
+Donne, near the Duomo, where dinners, "unordered," Mrs. Browning said,
+"come through the streets, and spread themselves on our table, as hot as
+if we had smelt cutlets hours before." She found Florence "unspeakably
+beautiful," both by grace of nature and of art, but they planned to go to
+Rome in the early autumn, taking an apartment "over the Tarpeian rock."
+Later this plan was relinquished, and with an apartment on their hands for
+six months they yet abandoned it, for want of sunshine, and removed to
+Casa Guidi.
+
+    "Think what we have done," wrote Mrs. Browning to Miss Mitford; "taken
+    two houses, that is, two apartments, each for six months, pre-signing
+    the contract. You will set it down to excellent poet's work in the way
+    of domestic economy, but the fault was altogether mine, for my
+    husband, to please me, took rooms with which I was not pleased for
+    three days, through the absence of sunshine. The consequence was that
+    we had to pay heaps of guineas away, for leave to go, ourselves, but
+    you can scarcely fancy the wonderful difference which the sun makes in
+    Italy. So away we came into the blaze of him into the Piazza Pitti;
+    precisely opposite the Grand Duke's palace; I with my remorse, and
+    poor Robert without a single reproach. Any other man, a little lower
+    than the angels, would have stamped and sworn a little for the mere
+    relief of the thing,--but as for his being angry with me for any cause
+    except not eating enough dinner, the said sun would turn the wrong way
+    first."
+
+
+Mrs. Browning's dog, Flush, was a member of the household not to be
+ignored, and her one source of consolation, in being turned away from the
+Vallombrosa summer, lay in the fact that "Flush hated it," and was
+frightened by the vast and somber pine forests. "Flush likes civilized
+life," said Mrs. Browning laughingly, "and the society of little dogs
+with turned-up tails, such as abound in Florence."
+
+So now they bestowed themselves in "rooms yellow with sunshine from
+morning till night," in Casa Guidi, where, "for good omen," they looked
+down on the old gray church of San Felice. There was a large, square
+anteroom, where the piano was placed, with one large picture, picked up in
+an obscure street in Florence; and a little dining-room, whose walls were
+covered with tapestry, and where hung medallions of Tennyson, Carlyle, and
+of Robert Browning; a long, narrow room, wraith-like with plaster casts
+and busts, was Mr. Browning's study, while she had her place in the large
+drawing-room, looking out upon the ancient church. Its old pictures of
+saints, gazing sadly from their sepulchral frames of black wood, with here
+and there a tapestry, and with the lofty, massive bookcases of Florentine
+carving, all gave the room a medieval look. Almost could one fancy that it
+enthroned the "fairy lady of Shalott," who might weave
+
+          "... from day to day,
+  A magic web of colors gay."
+
+Dante's grave profile, a cast of the face of Keats taken after death, and
+a few portraits of friends, added their interest to the atmosphere of a
+salon that seemed made for poets' uses. There were vast expanses of
+mirrors in the old carved Florentine frames, a colossal green velvet sofa,
+suggesting a catafalque, and a supernaturally deep easy-chair, in the same
+green velvet, which was Mrs. Browning's favorite seat when she donned her
+singing robes. Near this low arm-chair was always her little table, strewn
+with writing materials, books, and newspapers. Other tables in the
+_salotto_ bore gayly bound volumes, the gifts of brother authors. On the
+floor of a bedroom were the arms (in scabola), of the last count who had
+lived in this apartment, and there was a picturesque oil-jar, to hold
+rain-water, which Mrs. Browning declared would just hold the Captain of
+the Forty Thieves. All in all, the poets vowed they would not change homes
+with the Grand Duke himself, who was their neighbor in the Palazzo Pitti
+at the distance of a stone's throw. In the late afternoons they would
+wander out to the Loggia dei Lanzi, where Mrs. Browning greatly admired
+Cellini's Perseus with the Head of Medusa, and they watched "the divine
+sunsets on the Arno, turning it to pure gold under the bridges." Sometimes
+they were joined by Hiram Powers, who was one of their earliest friends in
+Florence, "our chief friend and favorite," Mrs. Browning said of him, and
+she found him a "simple, straightforward, genial American, as simple as
+the man of genius he has proved himself need be." Another friend of these
+early days was Miss Boyle, a niece of the Earl of Cork, somewhat a poet,
+withal, who, with her mother, was domiciled in the Villa Careggi, in which
+Lorenzo il Magnifico died, and which was loaned to the Boyles by Lord
+Holland. Miss Boyle frequently dropped in on them in the evening, "to
+catch us at hot chestnuts and mulled wine," said Mrs. Browning, "and a
+good deal of laughing she and Robert make between them." On the terrace of
+Casa Guidi orange trees and camellias bloomed, and the salons with their
+"rococo chairs, spring sofas, carved bookcases, and satin from Cardinals'
+beds," were a picturesque haunt. The ideal and poetic life of Mrs.
+Browning, so far from isolating her from the ordinary day and daylight
+duties, invested these, instead, with glow and charm and playful repartee;
+and, indeed, her never-failing sense of humor transformed any
+inconvenience or inadvertence into amusement. She, who is conceded to have
+written the finest sonnets since Shakespeare, could also mend a coat for
+her husband with a smile and a Greek epigram.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE GUARDIAN ANGEL.
+
+GUERCINO. CHURCH OF SAN AGOSTINO, FANO, ITALY
+
+  "_Guercino drew this angel I saw teach_
+  (_Alfred, dear friend!_) _that little child to pray._"
+
+The Guardian Angel; A Picture at Fano.]
+
+
+Joseph Arnould again wrote to their mutual friend, Domett:
+
+    "Browning and his wife are still in Florence; both ravished with Italy
+    and Italian life; so much so, that I think for some years they will
+    make it the Paradise of their poetical exile. I hold fast to my faith
+    in 'Paracelsus.' Browning and Carlyle are my two crowning men amongst
+    the highest English minds of the day. Third comes Alfred Tennyson....
+    By-the-bye, did you ever happen upon Browning's 'Pauline'? a strange,
+    wild (in parts singularly magnificent) poet-biography; his own early
+    life as it presented itself to his own soul viewed poetically; in
+    fact, psychologically speaking, his 'Sartor Resartus'; it was written
+    and published three years before 'Paracelsus,' when Shelley was his
+    God."
+
+A little later Arnould wrote again:
+
+    "Browning and his wife are still in Florence, and stay there till the
+    summer; he is bringing out another edition of his poems (except
+    'Sordello'), Chapman and Hall being his publishers, Moxon having
+    declined. He writes always most affectionately, and never forgets kind
+    inquiries about and kind messages to you."
+
+
+Allured by resplendent tales of Fano, the Brownings made a trip to that
+seaside hamlet, but found it uninhabitable in the late summer heat. A
+statue in the Piazza commemorated the ancient _Fanum Fortunæ_ of
+tradition, and in the cathedral of San Fortunato were frescoes by
+Domenichino, and in the _chiesa_ of Sant' Agostino was the celebrated
+painting of Sant' Angelo Custode, by Guercino, which suggested to Browning
+his poem "The Guardian Angel." The tender constancy of Browning's
+friendship for Alfred Domett is in evidence in this poem, and the beauty
+of his reference to his wife,--
+
+  "My angel with me, too,..."
+
+lingers with the reader.
+
+In no poem of his entire work has Browning given so complete a revelation
+of his own inner life as in this memorable lyric. The picture, dim as is
+the light in which it is seen, is one of the most impressive of all
+Guercino's works. In the little church of San Paterniano is a "Marriage of
+the Virgin," by Guercino, and in the Palazzo del Municipio of Fano is
+Guercino's "Betrothal of the Virgin," and the "David" of Domenichino.
+
+The Brownings while in Fano made the excursion to the summit of Monte
+Giove, an hour's drive from the Piazza, where was the old monastery and a
+wonderful view of the Adriatic, and of the panorama of the Apennines. "We
+fled from Fano after three days," wrote Mrs. Browning, "and finding
+ourselves cheated out of our dream of summer coolness, we resolved on
+substituting for it what the Italians call '_un bel giro_.' So we went to
+Ancona ... where we stayed a week, living on fish and cold water." They
+found Ancona "a straggling sea city, holding up against the brown rocks,
+and elbowing out the purple tides," and Mrs. Browning felt an inclination
+to visit it again when they might find a little air and shadow. They went
+on to Loreto, and then to Ravenna, where in the early dawn of a summer
+morning they stood by the tomb of Dante, deeply touched by the
+inscription. All through this journey they had "wonderful visions of
+beauty and glory." Returning to Florence, to their terraces, orange trees,
+and divine sunsets, one of their earliest visitors in Casa Guidi was
+Father Prout, who had chanced to be standing on the dock at Livorno when
+they first landed in Italy, from the journey from France, and who now
+appeared in Florence on his way to Rome. Mr. Browning had fallen ill after
+their trip to Fano, and Father Prout prescribed for him "port wine and
+eggs," which _régime_, combined with the racy conversation of the genial
+priest, seemed efficacious.
+
+In the meantime Mrs. Browning stood with her husband by the tomb of
+Michael Angelo in Santa Croce; she saw the Venus, the "divine Raphaels."
+The Peruzzi chapel had then recently been restored--some exquisite
+frescoes by Giotto being among the successful restorations. The
+"mountainous marble masses" of the Duomo, "tessellated marbles climbing
+into the sky, self-crowned with that prodigy of marble domes," struck Mrs.
+Browning as the wonder of all architecture.
+
+The political conditions of Italy began to enlist her interest. In June of
+1846 Pio Nono had ascended the Papal throne, preceded by a reputation for
+a liberal policy, and it was even hoped that he would not oppose the
+formation of a United Italy. The papal and the temporal government was
+still one, but Pius IX was a statesman as well as a churchman. England had
+especially commissioned Lord Minto to advocate reform, and the enthusiasts
+for Italian liberty received him with acclaim. The disasters of 1848 were
+still in the unrevealed future, and a new spirit was stirring all over the
+Italian kingdom. Piedmont was looked to with hope; and the Grand Duke of
+Tuscany had instituted a National Guard, as the first step toward popular
+government. The great topic of the day was the new hope of Italy. In
+Florence the streets and piazzas were vocal with praises of the Grand
+Duke. On one night that Browning went to the opera the tumult grew
+intense, and the Duke was escorted back to Palazzo Pitti with thousands of
+wax torchlights and a blaze of glory and cries of "Eviva! Eviva!"
+Browning, however, distrusted Pio Nono, thinking him weak, and events
+proved that his opinion was justified.
+
+The winter of 1847-1848 was passed by the Brownings in Casa Guidi. "I wish
+you could see what rooms we have," wrote Mrs. Browning to her husband's
+sister, Sarianna: "what ceilings, what height and breadth, what a double
+terrace for orange trees; how cool, how likely to be warm, how perfect
+every way!"
+
+The poets were constantly engaged in their work. Mrs. Browning began her
+long poem, "Casa Guidi Windows," and many of Browning's lyrics that
+appeared in the collection called "Men and Women" were written at this
+period. They passed much time in the galleries and churches. They drove in
+the beautiful environs of Florence. The pictures, history, and legends
+entered into their lives to serve in later days as poetic material. In the
+brief twilight of winter days they often strolled into the old gray church
+of San Felice, on which their windows looked out, where Browning would
+gratify his passion for music by evolving from the throbbing keys of the
+organ some faint Toccata of Galuppi's, while his wife smiled and listened,
+and the tide of Florentine life flowed by in the streets outside. Casa
+Guidi is almost opposite the Palazzo Pitti, so that Mrs. Browning had easy
+access to her beloved Madonnas in the Pitti gallery, which to her husband,
+also, was so unfailing a resource.
+
+One of Mrs. Browning's American admirers, and one of the reviewers of her
+poems, George Stillman Hillard, visited Florence that winter, and passed
+more than one evening in Casa Guidi with the Brownings. Of Mrs. Browning
+he wrote:
+
+    "Mrs. Browning is in many respects the correlative of her husband....
+    I have never seen a human frame which seemed so nearly a transparent
+    veil for a celestial and immortal spirit. She is a soul of fire
+    enclosed in a shell of pearl.... Nor is she more remarkable for genius
+    and learning than for sweetness of temper, tenderness of heart, depth
+    of feeling, and purity of spirit.... A union so complete as theirs--in
+    which the mind has nothing to crave, nor the heart to sigh for--is
+    cordial to behold and cheering to remember."
+
+
+Of all Italy Mr. Hillard perhaps best loved Florence, finding there an
+indescribable charm, "a blending of present beauty and traditional
+interest; but then Florence is alive," he added, "and not enslaved." It
+was probably Hillard who suggested to William Wetmore Story that he
+should meet Browning. At all events this meeting took place, initiating
+the friendship that endured "forty years, without a break," and that was
+one of the choicest social companionships.
+
+The spring of 1849 brought new joy to Casa Guidi, for on March 9 was born
+their son, who was christened Robert Wiedemann Barrett, the middle name
+(which in his manhood he dropped) being the maiden name of the poet's
+mother. The passion of both husband and wife for poetry was now quite
+equaled by that for parental duties, which they "caught up," said Mrs.
+Browning, "with a kind of rapture." Mr. Browning would walk the terraces
+where orange trees and oleanders blossomed, with the infant in his arms,
+and in the summer, when they visited Spezzia, and the haunt of Shelley at
+Lurici, they wandered five miles into the mountains, the baby with them,
+on horseback and donkey-back. The child grew rounder and rosier; and Mrs.
+Browning was able to climb hills and help her husband to lose himself in
+the forests.
+
+The death of Browning's mother immediately after the birth of his son was
+a great sadness to the poet, and one fully shared by his wife, who wrote
+to Miss Browning: "I grieve with you, as well as for you; for though I
+never saw her face, I loved that pure and tender spirit.... Robert and I
+dwell on the hope that you and your father will come to us at once.... If
+Florence is too far off, is there any other place where we could meet and
+arrange for the future?"
+
+The Brownings went for the summer to Bagni di Lucca, after the little
+_détour_ on the Mediterranean coast, where they lingered in the white
+marble mountains of Carrara. In Lucca they passed long summer hours in the
+beautiful Duomo, which had been consecrated by Pope Alexander II in the
+eleventh century. The beauty and the solitude charmed the poets; the
+little Penini was the "most popular of babies," and when Wilson carried
+the child out in the sunshine the Italians would crowd around him and
+exclaim, "_Che bel bambino!_" They had given him the pet Italian name
+"Penini," which always persisted. The Austrians had then taken possession
+of Florence, and Leopoldo, "L'intrepido," as the Italians asserted,
+remained quietly in the Palazzo Pitti. Browning, writing to Mrs. Jameson,
+says there is little for his wife to tell, "for she is not likely to
+encroach upon my story which I could tell of her entirely angel nature, as
+divine a heart as God ever made." The poet with his wife and Wilson and
+the baby made almost daily excursions into the forests and mountains, up
+precipitous fays and over headlong ravines; dining "with the goats," while
+the baby "lay on a shawl, rolling and laughing." The contrast of this
+mountain-climbing Mrs. Browning, with her husband and child, and the Miss
+Barrett of three or four years before, lying on a sofa in a darkened room,
+is rather impressive. The picture of one day is suggested by Mrs.
+Browning's description in a letter to Miss Mitford, where she writes:
+
+    "... I have performed a great exploit, ridden on a donkey five miles
+    deep into the mountains, to an almost inaccessible volcanic ground not
+    far from the stars. Robert on horseback, Wilson and the nurse with
+    baby, on other donkeys; guides, of course. We set off at eight in the
+    morning and returned at six P. M., after dining on the mountain
+    pinnacle.... The scenery, sublime and wonderful,... innumerable
+    mountains bound faintly with the gray sea, and not a human
+    habitation."
+
+
+[Illustration: MONUMENT TO DANTE, IN THE PIAZZA DI SANTA CROCE.
+
+STEFANO RICCI.
+
+  "_....The architect and hewer_
+  _Did pile the empty marbles as thy tomb._"
+
+Casa Guidi Windows.]
+
+
+It was during this _villeggiatura_ that Mrs. Browning, one morning after
+their breakfast, with shy sweetness, tucked the pages of the "Sonnets"
+into her husband's pocket and swiftly vanished. Robert Barrett Browning,
+who, as already noted, gave the history of this poetic interlude _viva
+voce_, has also recorded it in writing, as follows:
+
+What earthly vocabulary can offer fit words in which to speak of
+celestial beauty? How these exquisite "Sonnets" tell the story of that
+romance of Genius and Love,--from the woman's first thrill of interest in
+the poetry of an unknown poet, to the hour when he, "the princely giver,"
+brought to her "the gold and purple" of his heart
+
+  "For such as I to take or leave withal,"
+
+and she questions
+
+  "Can it be right to give what I can give?"
+
+with the fear that her delicacy of health should make such gifts
+
+  "Be counted with the ungenerous."
+
+But she thinks of how he "was in the world a year ago," and thus she
+drinks
+
+  "Of life's great cup of wonder! Wonderful,
+  Never to feel thee thrill the day or night
+  With personal act or speech,--
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  ... Atheists are as dull,
+  Who cannot guess God's presence out of sight."
+
+And the questioning,--
+
+  "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
+  I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
+  My soul can reach,...
+  ... I love thee with the breath,
+  Smiles, tears, of all my life!--and, if God choose,
+  I shall but love thee better after death."
+
+
+Returning to Florence in October, Browning soon began the preparation for
+his poem, "Christmas Eve and Easter Day," and Mrs. Browning arranged for a
+new one-volume edition of her poems, to include "The Seraphim," and the
+poems that had appeared in the same volume, and also the poems appearing
+in 1844, many of them revised.
+
+Marchesa d'Ossoli, whom the Brownings had heretofore known as Margaret
+Fuller, surprised them by appearing in Florence with her husband and
+child, the private marriage having taken place some two years before. The
+Greenoughs, the Storys, and Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Pearse Cranch were
+all in Florence, and were all habitués of Casa Guidi. Mr. Cranch, poet,
+painter, and musician, was the kindly friend of Longfellow and of Lowell
+in their Cambridge homes, and the Greenoughs and Storys were also of the
+Cambridge circle. To friends at home the Marchesa wrote of going to the
+opera with the Greenoughs, and that she saw the Brownings often, "and I
+love and admire them more and more," she continued. "Mr. Browning enriches
+every hour passed with him, and he is a most true, cordial, and noble
+man."
+
+The Florentine days have left their picturings: Mr. Story opens a studio,
+and while he is modeling, Mrs. Story reads to him from Monckton Milnes's
+Life of Keats, which Mr. Browning loaned them. Mrs. Story drives to Casa
+Guidi to carry Mrs. Browning her copy of "Jane Eyre," and Mrs. Greenough
+takes both Mrs. Story and Mrs. Browning to drive in the Cascine. Two
+American painters, Frank Boott and Frank Heath, are in Florence, and are
+more or less caught up in the Casa Guidi life; and the coterie all go to
+Mrs. Trollope's to see fancy costumes arranged for a ball to be given at
+Sir George Hamilton's. In one of the three villas on Bellosguardo Miss Isa
+Blagden was now domiciled. For more than a quarter of a century Miss
+Blagden was a central figure in English society in Florence. She became
+Mrs. Browning's nearest and most intimate friend, and she was the ardently
+prized friend of the Trollopes also, and of Miss Frances Power Cobbe, who
+shared her villa during one spring when Florence was in her most radiant
+beauty. "Isa was a very bright, warm-hearted, clever little woman," said
+Thomas Adolphus Trollope of her; "who knew everybody, and was, I think,
+more universally beloved among us than any other individual." Miss Blagden
+had written one or two novels, of little claim, however, and after her
+death a small volume of her poems was published, but all these had no more
+than the mere _succès d'estime_, as apparently the pen was with her, as
+with Margaret Fuller, a non-conductor; but as a choice spirit, of the most
+beautiful and engaging qualities of companionship, "Isa," as she was
+always caressingly called, is still held in memory. Madame Pasquale
+Villari, the wife of the great historian and the biographer of Machiavelli
+and of Savonarola, well remembers Miss Blagden, who died, indeed, in her
+arms in the summer of 1872.
+
+The intimate friendship between Mrs. Browning and Miss Blagden was
+initiated in the early months of the residence of the Brownings in
+Florence; but it was in this winter of 1849-1850 that they began to see
+each other so constantly. The poems of Matthew Arnold were published that
+winter, among which Mrs. Browning especially liked "The Deserted Merman"
+and "The Sick King of Bokkara," and about this time the authorship of
+"Jane Eyre" was revealed, and Charlotte Brontë discovered under the
+_nom-de-plume_ of Currer Bell.
+
+During the time that Mrs. Browning had passed at Torquay, before her
+marriage, she had met Theodosia Garrow, whose family were on intimate
+terms with Mr. Kenyon. Miss Barrett and Miss Garrow became friends, and
+when they met again it was in Florence, Miss Garrow having become the wife
+of Thomas Adolphus Trollope. Hiram Powers in these days was domiciled in
+the Via dei Serragli, in close proximity to Casa Guidi, and he frequently
+dropped in to have his morning coffee with the Brownings.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE PALAZZO VECCHIO, FLORENCE.]
+
+
+Landor had been for some years in his villa on the Fiesolean slope, not
+far from Maiano, where Leigh Hunt had wandered, dreaming of Boccaccio. Two
+scenes of the "Decameron" were laid in this region, and the deep ravine
+at the foot of one of the neighboring hills was the original of the
+"Valley of the Ladies." Not far away had been the house of Machiavelli;
+and nestling among the blue hills was the little white village of
+Settignano, where Michael Angelo was born. Leigh Hunt had been on terms of
+the most cordial intimacy with Landor, whom he described as "living among
+his paintings and hospitalities"; and Landor had also been visited by
+Emerson, and by Lord and Lady Blessington, by Nathaniel Parker Willis
+(introduced by Lady Blessington), by Greenough, Francis and Julius Hare,
+and by that universal friend of every one, Mr. Kenyon, all before the
+arrival of the Brownings in Florence. Landor had, however, been again in
+England for several years, where Browning and Miss Barrett had both met
+and admired him, as has been recorded.
+
+The Florence on which the Brownings had entered differed little from the
+Florence of to-day. The Palazzo Pitti, within a stone's throw of Casa
+Guidi, stood in the same cyclopean massiveness as now; the piazza and
+church of San Miniato, cypress-shaded, rose from the sweep of the hills,
+and the miraculous crucifix of San Giovanni Gualberto was then, as now, an
+object of pilgrimage. The wonder of the Italian sunsets, that "perished
+silently of their own glory," burned away over the far hills, and the
+strange, lofty tower of the Palazzo Vecchio caught the lingering rays.
+Beyond the Porta Romana, not far from Casa Guidi, was the road to the Val
+d'Emo, where the Certosa crowns an eminence. The stroll along the Arno at
+sunset was a favorite one with the poets, and in late afternoons they
+often climbed the slope to the Boboli Gardens for the view over Florence
+and the Val d'Arno. Nor did they ever tire of lingering in the Piazza
+della Signoria, before the marvelous palace with its medieval tower, and
+standing before the colossal fountain of Neptune, just behind the spot
+that is commemorated by a tablet in the pavement marking the martyrdom of
+Savonarola. The great equestrian statue of Cosimo I always engaged their
+attention in this historic piazza, which for four centuries had been the
+center of the political life of the Florentines. All these places, the
+churches, monuments, palaces, and the art of Florence, were fairly
+mirrored in the minds of the wedded poets, impressing their imagination
+with the fidelity of an image falling on a sensitized plate. To them, as
+to all who love and enter into the ineffable beauty of the City of Lilies,
+it was an atmosphere of enchantment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+1850-1855
+
+  "I heard last night a little child go singing
+    'Neath Casa Guidi windows, by the church,
+   _O bella libertà, O bella!..._"
+
+
+       "But Easter-Day breaks! But
+  Christ rises! Mercy every way
+  Is infinite,--and who can say?"
+
+
+"CASA GUIDI WINDOWS"--SOCIETY IN FLORENCE--MARCHESA D'OSSOLI--BROWNING'S
+    POETIC CREED--VILLEGGIATURA IN SIENA--VENICE--BRILLIANT LIFE IN
+    LONDON--PARIS AND MILSAND--BROWNING ON SHELLEY--IN FLORENCE--IDYLLIC
+    DAYS IN BAGNI DI LUCCA--MRS. BROWNING'S SPIRITUAL OUTLOOK--DELIGHTFUL
+    WINTER IN ROME--A POETIC PILGRIMAGE--HARRIET HOSMER--CHARACTERISTICS
+    OF MRS. BROWNING.
+
+
+The Brownings were never for a moment caught up in the wave of popular
+enthusiasm for Pio Nono that swept over Italy. Yet Mrs. Browning confessed
+herself as having been fairly "taken in" by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Had
+_Blackwood's Magazine_ published Part I of her "Casa Guidi Windows" at the
+time that she sent it to this periodical, the poem would have been its own
+proof of her distrust of the Pope, but it would also have offered the same
+proof of her ill-founded trust in the Grand Duke; so that, on the whole,
+she was well content to fail in having achieved the distinction of a
+prophet regarding Pio Nono, as no Cassandra can afford to be convicted of
+delusion in some portion of the details of her prophecy. To achieve
+lasting reputation as a soothsayer, the prophecy must be accurate
+throughout. The fact that there was an interval of three years between the
+first and the second parts of this poem accounts for the discrepancy
+between them. In her own words she confessed:
+
+  "I wrote a meditation and a dream,
+    Hearing a little child sing in the street:
+  I leant upon his music as a theme,
+    Till it gave way beneath my heart's full beat
+  Which tried at an exultant prophecy,
+    But dropped before the measure was complete--
+  Alas for songs and hearts! O Tuscany,
+    O Dante's Florence, is the type too plain?"
+
+
+The flashing lightnings of a betrayed people gleam like an unsheathed
+sword in another canto beginning:
+
+  "From Casa Guidi windows I looked forth,
+  And saw ten thousand eyes of Florentines
+  Flash back the triumph of the Lombard north."
+
+
+These ardent lines explain how she had been misled, for who could dream at
+the time that Leopoldo ("_l'Intrepido_," as a poet of Viareggio called him
+in a truly Italian fervor of enthusiasm) could have proved himself a
+traitor to these trusting people,--these tender-hearted, gentle,
+courteous, refined Italians? All these attributes pre-eminently
+characterize the people; but also Mrs. Browning's insight that "the
+patriots are not instructed, and the instructed are not patriots," was too
+true. The adherents of the papal power were strong and influential, and
+the personal character, whatever might be said of his political
+principles,--the personal character of Pio Nono was singularly winning,
+and this was by no means a negligible factor in the great problem then
+before Italy.
+
+
+[Illustration: STATUE OF SAVONAROLA, BY E. PAZZI,
+
+IN THE SALA DEI CINQUECENTO, PALAZZO VECCHIO.]
+
+
+Mrs. Browning very wisely decided to let "Casa Guidi Windows" stand as
+written, with all the inconsistency between its first and second parts,
+as each reflected what she believed true at the time of writing; and it
+thus presents a most interesting and suggestive commentary on Italian
+politics between 1850 and 1853. Its discrepancies are such "as we are
+called upon to accept at every hour by the conditions of our nature," she
+herself said of it, "implying the interval between aspiration and
+performance, between faith and disillusion, between hope and fact." This
+discrepancy was more painful to her than it can be even to the most
+critical reader; but the very nature of the poem, its very fidelity to the
+conditions and impressions of the moment, give it great value, though
+these impressions were to be modified or canceled by those of a later
+time; it should stand as it is, if given to the world at all. And the
+courage to avow one's self mistaken is not the least of the forms that
+moral courage may assume.
+
+Regarding Pio Nono, Mrs. Browning is justified by history, notwithstanding
+the many amiable and beautiful qualities of the Pontiff which forever
+assure him a place in affection, if not in political confidence. Even his
+most disastrous errors were the errors of judgment rather than those of
+conscious intention. Pio Nono had the defects of his qualities, but loving
+and reverent pilgrimages are constantly made to that little chapel behind
+the iron railing in the old church of San Lorenzo _Fuori le Mura_ in Rome
+(occupying the site of the church founded by Constantine), where his body
+is entombed in a marble sarcophagus of the plainest design according to
+his own instructions; but the interior of the vestibule is richly
+decorated with mosaic paintings, the tribute of those who loved him.
+
+Leopoldo was so kindly a man, so sincere in his work for the liberty of
+the press and for other important reforms, that it is no marvel that Mrs.
+Browning invested him with resplendence of gifts he did not actually
+possess, but which it was only logical to feel that such a man must have.
+Sometimes a too complete reliance on the _ex pede Herculem_ method of
+judgment is misleading.
+
+While the cause of Italian liberty had the entire sympathy of Robert
+Browning, he was yet little moved to use it as a poetic motive. Professor
+Hall Griffin suggests that it is possible that Browning deliberately chose
+not to enter a field which his wife so particularly made her own; but that
+is the less tenable as they never discussed their poetic work with each
+other, and as a rule rarely showed to each other a single poem until it
+was completed.
+
+The foreign society in Florence at this time included some delightful
+American sojourners, for, beside the Storys and Hiram Powers (an especial
+friend of the Brownings), there were George S. Hillard, George William
+Curtis, and the Marchesa d'Ossoli with her husband,--all of whom were
+welcomed at Casa Guidi. The English society then in Florence was, as Mrs.
+Browning wrote to Miss Mitford, "kept up much after the old English
+models, with a proper disdain for continental simplicities of expense; and
+neither my health nor our pecuniary circumstances," she says, "would admit
+of our entering it. The fact is, we are not like our child, who kisses
+everybody who smiles on him! You can scarcely imagine to yourself how we
+have retreated from the kind advances of the English here, and struggled
+with hands and feet to keep out of this gay society." But it is alluring
+to imagine the charm of their chosen circle, the Storys always first and
+nearest, and these other gifted and interesting friends.
+
+Mr. Story is so universally thought of as a sculptor that it is not always
+realized how eminent he was in the world of letters as well. Two volumes
+of his poems contain many of value, and a few, as the "Cleopatra," "An
+Estrangement," and the immortal "Io Victis," that the world would not
+willingly let die; his "Roba di Roma" is one of those absolutely
+indispensable works regarding the Eternal City; and several other books
+of his, in sketch and criticism, enrich literature. A man of the most
+courtly and distinguished manner, of flawless courtesy, an artist of
+affluent expressions, it is not difficult to realize how congenial and
+delightful was his companionship, as well as that of his accomplished
+wife, to the Brownings. Indeed, no biographical record could be made of
+either household, with any completeness, that did not largely include the
+other. In all the lovely chronicles of literature and life there is no
+more beautiful instance of an almost lifelong friendship than that between
+Robert Browning and William Wetmore Story.
+
+In this spring of 1850 Browning was at work on his "Christmas Eve and
+Easter Day," and Casa Guidi preserved a liberal margin of quiet and
+seclusion. "You can scarcely imagine," wrote Mrs. Browning, "the retired
+life we live.... We drive day by day through the lovely Cascine, only
+sweeping through the city. Just such a window where Bianca Capello looked
+out to see the Duke go by,--and just such a door where Tasso stood, and
+where Dante drew his chair out to sit."
+
+When Curtis visited Florence he wrote to Browning begging to be permitted
+to call, and he was one of the welcomed visitors in Casa Guidi. Browning
+took him on many of those romantic excursions with which the environs of
+Florence abound,--to Settignano, where Michael Angelo was born; to the old
+Roman amphitheater in Fiesole; to that somber, haunted summit of San
+Miniato, and to Vallombrosa, where he played to Curtis some of the old
+Gregorian chants on an organ in the monastery. Afterward, in a
+conversation with Longfellow, Mr. Curtis recalled a hymn by Pergolese that
+Browning had played for him.
+
+Tennyson's poem, "The Princess," went into the third edition that winter,
+and Mrs. Browning observed that she knew of no poet, having claim _solely_
+through poetry, who had attained so certain a success with so little
+delay. Hearing that Tennyson had remarked that the public "hated poetry,"
+Mrs. Browning commented that, "divine poet as he was, and no laurel being
+too leafy for him," he must yet be unreasonable if he were not gratified
+with "so immediate and so conspicuous a success."
+
+Browning's "imprisoned splendor" found expression that winter in several
+lyrics, which were included in the new (two volume) edition of his poems.
+
+Among these were the "Meeting at Night," "Parting at Morning," "A Woman's
+Last Word," and "Evelyn Hope." "Love among the Ruins," "Old Pictures in
+Florence," "Saul," and his "A Toccata of Galuppi's," all belong to this
+group. In that ardent love poem, "A Woman's Last Word," occur the lines:
+
+  "Teach me, only teach, Love!
+      As I ought
+  I will speak thy speech, Love,
+      Think thy thought--
+
+  "Meet, if thou require it,
+      Both demands,
+  Laying flesh and spirit
+      In thy hands."
+
+
+No lyric that Robert Browning ever wrote is more haunting in its power and
+sweetness, or more rich in significance, than "Evelyn Hope," with "that
+piece of geranium flower" in the glass beside her beginning to die. The
+whole scene is suggested by this one detail, and in characterization of
+the young girl are these inimitable lines,--
+
+  "The good stars met in your horoscope,
+    Made you of spirit, fire, and dew--
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Yet one thing, one, in my soul's full scope,
+    Either I missed or itself missed me;
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  So, hush,--I will give you this leaf to keep;
+      See, I shut it inside the sweet cold hand!
+  There, that is our secret: go to sleep!
+      You will wake, and remember, and understand."
+
+
+[Illustration: FRESCO OF DANTE, BY GIOTTO, IN THE BARGELLO, FLORENCE.
+
+  "_.... With a softer brow_
+  _Than Giotto drew upon the wall._"
+
+Casa Guidi Windows.]
+
+
+Mrs. Browning's touching lyric, "A Child's Grave at Florence," was
+published in the _Athenæum_ that winter; and in this occur the simple but
+appealing stanzas,--
+
+  "Oh, my own baby on my knees,
+      My leaping, dimpled treasure,
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  But God gives patience, Love learns strength,
+      And Faith remembers promise;
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Still mine! maternal rights serene
+      Not given to another!
+  The crystal bars shine faint between
+      The souls of child and mother."
+
+
+To this day, that little grave in the English cemetery in Florence, with
+its "A. A. E. C." is sought out by the visitor. To Mrs. Browning the love
+for her own child taught her the love of all mothers. In "Only a Curl" are
+the lines:
+
+  "O children! I never lost one,--
+  But my arm's round my own little son,
+  And Love knows the secret of Grief."
+
+
+Florence "bristled with cannon" that winter, but nothing decisive
+occurred. The faith of the Italian people in Pio Nono, however, grew less.
+Mr. Kirkup, the antiquarian, still carried on his controversy with Bezzi
+as to which of them were the more entitled to the glory of discovering the
+Dante portrait, and in the spring there occurred the long-deferred
+marriage of Mrs. Browning's sister Henrietta to Captain Surtees Cook, the
+attitude of Mr. Barrett being precisely the same as on the marriage of his
+daughter Elizabeth to Robert Browning. The death of Wordsworth was another
+of the events of this spring, leaving vacant the Laureateship. The
+_Athenæum_ at once advocated the appointment of Mrs. Browning, as one
+"eminently suitable under a female sovereign." Other literary authorities
+coincided with this view, it seeming a sort of poetic justice that a woman
+poet should be Laureate to a Queen. The _Athenæum_ asserted that "there is
+no living poet of either sex who can prefer a higher claim than Elizabeth
+Barrett Browning," but the honor was finally conferred upon Tennyson, with
+the ardent approbation of the Brownings, who felt that his claim was
+rightly paramount.
+
+In the early summer the Marchese and Marchesa d'Ossoli, with their child,
+sailed on that ill-starred voyage whose tragic ending startled the
+literary world of that day. Their last evening in Florence was passed with
+the Brownings. The Marchesa expressed a fear of the voyage that, after its
+fatal termination, was recalled by her friends as being almost prophetic.
+Curiously she gave a little Bible to the infant son of the poets as a
+presentation from her own little child; and Robert Barrett Browning still
+treasures, as a strange relic, the book on whose fly-leaf is written "In
+memory of Angelino d'Ossoli." Mrs. Browning had a true regard for the
+Marchesa, of whom she spoke as "a very interesting person, thoughtful,
+spiritual, in her habitual mode of mind."
+
+In his poetic creed, Browning deprecated nothing more entirely (to use a
+mild term where a stronger would not be inappropriate) than that the poet
+should reveal his personal feeling in his poem; and to the dramatic
+character of his own work he held tenaciously. He rebuked the idea that
+Shakespeare "unlocked his heart" to his readers, and he warns them off
+from the use of any fancied latch-key to his own inner citadel.
+
+  "Which of you did I enable
+    Once to slip inside my breast,
+  There to catalogue and label
+    What I like least, what love best?"
+
+And in another poem the reader will recall how fervently he thanks God
+that "even the meanest of His creatures"
+
+  "Boasts two soul-sides, one to face the world with,
+  One to show a woman when he loves her!"
+
+
+It was the knowledge of this intense and pervading conviction of her
+husband's that kept Mrs. Browning so long from showing to him her
+exquisitely tender and sacred self-revelation in the "Sonnets from the
+Portuguese." Yet it was in that very "One Word More" where Browning thanks
+God for the "two soul-sides," that he most simply reveals himself, and
+also in "Prospice" and in this "Christmas Eve and Easter Day." This poem,
+with its splendor of vision, was published in 1850, with an immediate sale
+of two hundred copies, after which for the time the demand ceased. William
+Sharp well designates it as a "remarkable Apologia for Christianity," for
+it can be almost thought of in connection with Newman's "Apologia pro vita
+sua," and as not remote from the train of speculative thought which
+Matthew Arnold wrought into his "Literature and Dogma." It is very
+impressive to see how the very content of Hegelian Dialectic is the
+key-note of Browning's art. "The concrete and material content of a life
+of perfected knowledge and volition means one thing, only, love," teaches
+Hegelian philosophy. This, too, is the entire message of Browning's
+poetry. Man must love God in the imperfect manifestation which is all he
+can offer of God. He must relate the imperfect expression to the perfect
+aspiration.
+
+  "All I aspired to be
+  And was not--comforts me."
+
+In the unfaltering search for the Divine Ideal is the true reward.
+
+  "One great aim, like a guiding star, above--
+  Which tasks strength, wisdom, stateliness, to lift
+  His manhood to the height that takes the prize."
+
+
+Browning conceived and presented the organic idea and ideal of life, in
+its fullness, its intensity, as perhaps few poets have ever done. He would
+almost place a positive sin above a negative virtue. To live intensely,
+even if it be sinfully, was to Browning's vision to be on the upward way,
+rather than to be in a state of negative good. The spirit of man is its
+own witness of the presence of God. Life cannot be truly lived in any
+fantastic isolation.
+
+  "Just when we're safest, there's a sunset touch,
+  A fancy from a flower-bell, some one's death,
+  A chorus ending from Euripides."
+
+
+With Browning, as with Spinoza, there is an impatience, too, with the
+perpetual references to death, and they both constantly turn to the
+everlasting truth of life. "It is this harping on death that I despise so
+much," exclaimed Browning, in the later years of his life, in a
+conversation with a friend. "In fiction, in poetry, in art, in literature
+this shadow of death, call it what you will,--despair, negation,
+indifference,--is upon us. But what fools who talk thus!... Why, death is
+life, just as our daily momentarily dying body is none the less alive, and
+ever recruiting new forces of existence. Without death, which is our word
+for change, for growth, there could be no prolongation of that which we
+call life."
+
+After the completion of "Christmas Eve and Easter Day," Mrs. Browning
+questioned her husband about the apparent asceticism of the second part of
+the poem, and he replied that he meant it to show only one side of the
+matter. "Don't think," she wrote to a friend, "that Robert has taken to
+the cilix,--indeed he has not, but it is his way to see things as
+passionately as other people feel them."
+
+Browning teaches in this poem that faith is an adventure of the spirit,
+the aspiration felt, even if unnamed. But as to renunciation,--
+
+  "'Renounce the world!'--Ah, were it done
+  By merely cutting one by one
+  Your limbs off, with your wise head last,
+  How easy were it!"
+
+The renunciation that the poet sees is not so simple. It is not to put
+aside all the allurements of life, but to use them nobly; to persist in
+the life of the spirit, to offer love for hatred, truth for falsehood,
+generous self-sacrifice rather than to grasp advantages,--to live, not to
+forsake the common daily lot. It is, indeed, the philosophy amplified that
+is found in the words of Jesus, "I pray not that Thou shouldest take them
+out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil."
+
+The Brownings remained till late in the summer in their Casa Guidi home,
+detained at first by the illness of Mrs. Browning, after which they
+decided to postpone going to England until another year. In the late
+summer they went for a few weeks to Siena, where, two miles outside the
+walls, they found a seven-roomed villa with a garden and vineyard and
+olive orchard, and "a magnificent view of a noble sweep of country,
+undulating hills and verdure, and on one side the great Maremma extending
+to the foot of the Roman mountains." They were located on a little hill
+called Poggia dei venti, with all the winds of the heavens, indeed,
+blowing about them, and with overflowing quantities of milk and bread and
+wine, and a loggia at the top of the villa. Mrs. Browning found herself
+rapidly recovering strength, and their comfort was further extended by
+finding a library in Siena, where, for three francs a month, they had
+access to the limited store of books which seem so luxurious in Italy. The
+boy Browning was delighted with his new surroundings, his sole infelicity
+being his inability to reach the grapes clustering over the trellises; he
+missed the Austrian band that made music (or noise) for his delectation in
+Florence, although to compensate for this privation he himself sang
+louder than ever. In after years Mr. Browning laughingly related this
+anecdote of his son's childhood: "I was one day playing a delicate piece
+of Chopin's on the piano, and hearing a loud noise outside, hastily
+stopped playing when my little boy ran in, and my wife exclaimed: 'How
+could you leave off playing when Penini brought three drums to accompany
+you?'"
+
+For all this bloom and beauty in Siena they paid a little less than
+fifteen francs a week. Soon after their arrival they learned of the
+shipwreck in which the Marchese and Marchesa d'Ossoli and the little
+Angelino all perished, and the tragedy deeply impressed Mrs. Browning.
+"The work that the Marchesa was preparing upon Italy would have been more
+equal to her faculties than anything she has ever produced," said Mrs.
+Browning, "her other writings being curiously inferior to the impression
+made by her conversation."
+
+Before returning to Florence the Brownings passed a week in the town of
+Siena to visit the pictures and churches, but they found it pathetic to
+leave the villa, and especially harrowing to their sensibilities to part
+with the pig. There is consolation, however, for most mortal sorrows, and
+the Brownings found it in their intense interest in Sienese art. The
+wonderful pulpit of the Duomo, the work of Niccola Pisano; the font of San
+Giovanni; the Sodomas, and the Libreria (the work of Pius III, which he
+built when he was Cardinal, and in which, at the end of the aisle, is a
+picture of his own elevation to the Papal throne, painted after his death)
+fascinated their attention. The Brownings found it dazzling to enter this
+interior, all gold and color, with the most resplendent decorative
+effects. They followed in the footsteps of Saint Catherine, as do all
+pilgrims to Siena, and climbed the hill to the Oratorio di Santa Caterina
+in Fontebranda, and read that inscription: "Here she stood and touched
+that precious vessel and gift of God, blessed Catherine, who in her
+life did so many miracles." They lingered, too, in the Cappella Santa
+Caterina in San Domenico, where Catherine habitually prayed, where she
+beheld visions and received her mystic revelations. They loitered in the
+piazza, watching the stars hang over that aerial tower, "Il Mangia," and
+drove to San Gimignano, with its picturesque medieval atmosphere.
+
+
+[Illustration: CATHEDRAL OF SANTA MARIA DEL FIORE, FLORENCE,
+               KNOWN AS THE DUOMO.
+
+  "_The most to praise and the best to see_
+  _Was the startling bell-tower Giotto raised._"
+
+Old Pictures in Florence.]
+
+
+It was in the autumn of 1850 that Tennyson's "In Memoriam," first
+privately and then anonymously printed, was acknowledged by the poet. The
+Brownings read extracts from it in the _Examiner_, and they were deeply
+moved by it. "Oh, there's a poet!" wrote Mrs. Browning. At last, "by a
+sort of miracle," they obtained a copy, and Mrs. Browning was carried away
+with its exquisite touch, its truth and earnestness. "The book has gone to
+my heart and soul," she says, "I think it full of deep pathos and beauty."
+
+An interesting visitor dropped in at Casa Guidi in the person of a
+grandson of Goethe; and his mission to Florence, to meet the author of
+"Paracelsus" and discuss with him the character of the poem, was a tribute
+to its power. Mrs. Browning, whose poetic ideals were so high, writing to
+a friend of their guest, rambled on into some allusions to poetic art, and
+expressed her opinion that all poets should take care to teach the world
+that poetry is a divine thing. "Rather perish every verse I ever wrote,
+for one," she said, "than help to drag down an inch that standard of
+poetry which, for the sake of humanity as well as literature, should be
+kept high."
+
+In "Aurora Leigh" she expresses the same sentiment in the lines:
+
+                        "I, who love my art,
+  Would never wish it lower to suit my stature."
+
+
+Full of affection and interest are Mrs. Browning's letters to her
+husband's sister, Sarianna, who, with her father, is now living in
+Hatcham, near London. In the spring of 1852, after passing the winter in
+Florence, the Brownings set out for England; the plan at first being to go
+south to Naples, pause at Rome, and then go northward; but this was
+finally abandoned, and they proceeded directly to Venice, where Mrs.
+Browning was enchanted with life set in a scenic loveliness of "music and
+stars."
+
+"I have been between heaven and earth since our arrival in Venice," she
+writes. "The heaven of it is ineffable. Never have I touched the skirts of
+so celestial a place. The beauty of the architecture, the silver trails of
+water between all that gorgeous color and carving, the enchanting silence,
+the moonlight, the music, the gondolas,--I mix it all up together...."
+
+In the divine beauty of Venetian evenings they sat in the white moonlight
+in the piazza of San Marco, taking their coffee and the French papers
+together. Or they would go to the opera, where for a ridiculously small
+sum they had an entire box to themselves. But while Mrs. Browning longed
+"to live and die in Venice, and never go away," the climate did not agree
+with Mr. Browning, and they journeyed on toward Paris, stopping one night
+at Padua and driving out to Arqua for Petrarca's sake. In Milan Mrs.
+Browning climbed the three hundred and fifty steps, to the topmost
+pinnacle of the glorious cathedral. At Como they abandoned the diligence
+for the boat, sailing through that lovely chain of lakes to Flüelen, and
+thence to Lucerne, the scenery everywhere impressing Mrs. Browning as
+being so sublime that she "felt as if standing in the presence of God."
+From Lucerne they made a _détour_ through Germany, pausing at Strasburg,
+and arriving in Paris in July. This journey initiated an absence of almost
+a year and a half from Italy. They had let their apartment, so they were
+quite free to wander, and they were even considering the possibility of
+remaining permanently in Paris, whose brilliant intellectual life
+appealed to them both. After a brief sojourn in the French capital, they
+went on to England, and they had rather an embarrassment of riches in the
+number of houses proffered them, for Tennyson begged them to accept the
+loan of his house and servants at Twickenham, and Joseph Arnould was
+equally urgent that they should occupy his town house. But they took
+lodgings, instead, locating in Devonshire Street, and London life proceeds
+to swallow them up after its own absorbing fashion. They breakfast with
+Rogers, and pass an evening with the Carlyles; Forster gives a
+"magnificent dinner" for them; Mrs. Fanny Kemble calls, and sends them
+tickets for her reading of "Hamlet"; and the Proctors, Mrs. Jameson, and
+other friends abound. They go to New Cross, Hatcham, to visit Mr.
+Browning's father and sister, where the little Penini "is taken into
+adoration" by his grandfather. Mrs. Browning's sisters show her every
+affection, and her brothers come; but her father, in reply to her own and
+her husband's letter, simply sends back to her, with their seals unbroken,
+all the letters she had written to him from Italy. "So there's the end,"
+she says; "I cannot, of course, write again. God takes it all into His own
+hands, and I wait." The warm affection of her sisters cheered her, Mrs.
+Surtees Cook (Henrietta Barrett) coming up from Somersetshire for a week's
+visit, and her sister Arabel being invited with her. It was during this
+sojourn in London that Bayard Taylor, poet and critic, and afterward
+American Minister Plenipotentiary to Germany, called upon the Brownings,
+bringing a letter of introduction from Hillard.
+
+The poet's wife impressed Taylor as almost a spirit figure, with her
+pallor and slender grace, and the little Penini, "a blue-eyed,
+golden-haired boy, babbling his little sentences in Italian," strayed in
+like a sunbeam. While Taylor was with them, Mr. Kenyon called, and after
+his departure Browning remarked to his guest: "There goes one of the most
+splendid men living,--a man so noble in his friendship, so lavish in his
+hospitality, so large-hearted and benevolent, that he deserves to be known
+all over the world as Kenyon the Magnificent."
+
+The poets were overwhelmed with London hospitalities, and as Mrs. Browning
+gave her maid, Wilson, leave of absence to visit her own family, the care
+of little Pen fell upon her. He was in a state of "deplorable grief" for
+his nurse, "and after all," laughed Mrs. Browning, "the place of nursery
+maid is more suitable to me than that of poetess (or even poet's wife) in
+this obstreperous London."
+
+In the late September the Brownings crossed to Paris, Carlyle being their
+traveling companion, and after an effort to secure an apartment near the
+Madeleine, they finally established themselves in the Avenue des Champs
+Élysées (No. 128), where they had pretty, sunny rooms, tastefully
+furnished, with the usual French lavishness in mirrors and clocks,--all
+for two hundred francs a month, which was hardly more than they had paid
+for the dreary Grosvenor Street lodgings in London. Mrs. Browning was very
+responsive to that indefinable exhilaration of atmosphere that pervades
+the French capital, and the little Penini was charmed with the gayety and
+brightness. Mrs. Browning enjoyed the restaurant dining, _à la carte_,
+"and mixing up one's dinner with heaps of newspapers, and the 'solution'
+by Émile de Girardin," who suggested, it seems, "that the next President
+of France should be a tailor." Meantime she writes to a friend that "the
+'elf' is flourishing in all good fairyhood, with a scarlet rose leaf on
+each cheek." They found themselves near neighbors of Béranger, and
+frequently saw him promenading the avenue in a white hat, and they learned
+that he lived very quietly and "kept out of scrapes, poetical and
+political." Mrs. Browning notes that they would like to know Béranger,
+were the stars propitious, and that no accredited letter of introduction
+to him would have been refused, but that they could not make up their
+minds to go to his door and introduce themselves as vagrant minstrels. To
+George Sand they brought a letter from Mazzini, and although they heard
+she "had taken vows against seeing strangers," Mrs. Browning declared she
+would not die, if she could help it, without meeting the novelist who had
+so captivated her. Mazzini's letter, with one from themselves, was sent to
+George Sand through mutual friends, and the following reply came:
+
+    Madame, j'aurai l'honneur de vous recevoir Dimanche prochain, rue
+    Racine, 3. C'est le seul jour que je puisse passer chez moi; et encore
+    je n'en suis pas absolument certaine--mais je ferai tellement mon
+    possible, que ma bonne étoile m'y aidera peut-être un peu. Agréez
+    mille remerciments de coeur ainsi que Monsieur Browning, que
+    j'espère voir avec vous, pour la sympathie que vous m'accordez.
+
+    GEORGE SAND.
+
+    PARIS, 12 _fevrier_, 1852.
+
+
+The visit must have been mutually satisfactory, for it was repeated two or
+three times, and they found her simple, "without a shade of affectation or
+consciousness." Another pleasure they had was in meeting Lamartine, who
+took the initiative in asking to be allowed to call on them. After their
+arrival in Paris Carlyle passed several evenings with them, and Mrs.
+Browning felt, with her husband, that he was one of the most interesting
+of men, "highly picturesque" in conversation. Her sympathetic insight gave
+her always the key and the clue to character, and perhaps no one ever read
+Carlyle more truly than she, when she interpreted his bitterness only as
+melancholy, and his scorn as sensibility.
+
+The Brownings had not been long in Paris before they were invited to a
+reception at Lady Elgin's, where they met Madame Mohl, who at once
+cordially urged their coming to her "evenings," to meet her French
+celebrities. Lady Elgin was domiciled in the old Faubourg Saint Germain,
+and received every Monday evening from eight to twelve, _sans façon_,
+people being in morning dress, and being served with simple refreshment of
+tea and cakes. Lady Elgin expressed the hope that the Brownings would come
+to her on every one of these evenings, Mrs. Browning said that she had
+expected "to see Balzac's duchesses and _hommes de lettres_ on all sides,"
+but she found it less notable, though very agreeable. The elder Browning
+and his daughter pay a visit to them, greatly to Mrs. Browning's
+enjoyment. At this time they half contemplated living permanently in
+Paris, if it seemed that Mrs. Browning could endure the climate, and she
+records, during the visit of her husband's father and sister, that if they
+do remain in Paris they hope to induce these beloved members of the family
+to also establish themselves there. As it turned out, the Brownings passed
+only this one winter in the French capital, but the next spring Mr.
+Browning (_père_) and his daughter Sarianna took up their residence in
+Paris, where they remained during the remainder of his life. Mrs. Browning
+was always deeply attached to her husband's sister. "Sarianna is full of
+accomplishment and admirable sense," she wrote of her, and the visit of
+both gave her great pleasure. The _coup d'état_ took place early in
+December, but they felt no alarm. Mrs. Browning expressed her great faith
+in the French people, and declared the talk about "military despotism" to
+be all nonsense. The defect she saw in M. Thiers was "a lack of breadth of
+view, which helped to bring the situation to a dead lock, on which the
+French had no choice than to sweep the board clean and begin again."
+
+It was during this early winter, with French politics and French society
+and occasional spectacles and processions extending from the Carrousel to
+the Arc de l'Étoile, that Browning wrote that essay on Shelley, which his
+publisher of that time, Mr. Moxon, had requested to accompany a series of
+Shelley letters which had been discovered, but which were afterward found
+to be fraudulent. The edition was at once suppressed; but a few copies had
+already gone out, and, as Professor Dowden says, "The essay is interesting
+as Browning's only considerable piece of prose;... for him the poet of
+'Prometheus Unbound' was not that beautiful and ineffectual angel of
+Matthew Arnold's fancy, beating in the void his luminous wings. A great
+moral purpose looked forth from Shelley's work, as it does from all lofty
+works of art." It was "the dream of boyhood," Browning tells us, to render
+justice to Shelley; and he availed himself of this opportunity with
+alluring eagerness. His interpretation of Shelley is singularly noble and
+in accord with all the great spiritual teachings of his own poetic work.
+Browning's plea that there is no basis for any adequate estimate of
+Shelley, who "died before his youth was ended," cannot but commend its
+justice; and he urges that in any measurement of Shelley as a man he must
+be contemplated "at his ultimate spiritual stature" and not judged by the
+mistakes of ten years before when in his entire immaturity of character.
+
+How all that infinite greatness of spirit and almost divine breadth of
+comprehension that characterize Robert Browning reveal themselves in this
+estimate of Shelley. It is seeing human errors and mistakes as God sees
+them,--the temporary faults, defects, imperfections of the soul on its
+onward way to perfection. This was the attitude of Browning's profoundest
+convictions regarding human life.
+
+  "Eternal process moving on;
+    From state to state the spirit walks."
+
+This achievement of the divine ideal for man is not within the
+possibilities of the brief sojourn on earth, but what does the transition
+called death do for man but to
+
+  "Interpose at the difficult moment, snatch Saul, the mistake,
+  Saul, the failure, the ruin he seems now,--and bid him awake
+  From the dream, the probation, the prelude, to find himself set
+  Clear and safe in new light and new life,--a new harmony yet
+  To be run, and continued, and ended--who knows?--or endure!
+  The man taught enough by life's dream, of the rest to make sure."
+
+
+Browning's message in its completeness was invariably that which is
+imaged, too, in these lines from Mrs. Browning's "Aurora Leigh":
+
+  "And take for a worthier stage the soul itself,
+  Its shifting fancies and celestial lights."
+
+
+For it is only in this drama of the infinite life that the spiritual man
+can be tested. It was from the standpoint of an actor on this celestial
+stage that Browning considered Shelley. In the entire range of Browning's
+art the spiritual man is imaged as a complex and individualized spark of
+the divine force. He is seen for a flitting moment on his way toward a
+divine destiny.
+
+Professor Hall Griffin states as his belief that Browning's paper was to
+some degree inspired by that of Joseph Milsand on himself, which appeared
+in August, 1851, in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ in which Milsand commended
+Browning's work "as pervaded by an intense belief in the importance of the
+individual soul."
+
+To Browning this winter was enchanted by the initiation of his friendship
+with Milsand, the distinguished French scholar and critic, who had already
+made a name as a philosophic thinker and had published a book on Ruskin
+(_L'Esthétique Anglaise_), and who was a discerner of spirits in poetic
+art as well. About the time that "Paracelsus" appeared, Milsand had seen
+an extract from the poem that captivated him, and he at once sent for the
+volume. He had also read, with the deepest interest, Browning's "Christmas
+Eve and Easter Day." He was contributing to the _Revue des Deux Mondes_
+two papers on _La Poésie Anglaise depuis Byron_, the first of which, on
+Tennyson, had appeared the previous August. Milsand was about completing
+the second paper of this series (on Browning), and it happened just at
+this time that Miss Mitford's "Recollections of a Literary Life" was
+published, in which, writing of the Brownings, she had told the story of
+that tragic death of Mrs. Browning's brother Edward, who had been drowned
+at Torquay. In these days, when, as Emerson rhymes the fact,
+
+  "Every thought is public,
+    Every nook is wide,
+  The gossips spread each whisper
+    And the gods from side to side,"
+
+it is a little difficult to quite comprehend, even in comprehending Mrs.
+Browning's intense sensitiveness and the infinite sacredness of this
+grief, why she should have been so grieved at Miss Mitford's tender
+allusion to an accident that was, by its very nature, public, and which
+must have been reported in the newspapers of the day. Mrs. Browning was
+always singularly free from any morbid states, from any tendency to the
+_idée fixe_, to which a semi-invalid condition is peculiarly and
+pardonably liable; but she said, in an affectionate letter to Miss
+Mitford:
+
+    "I have lived heart to heart (for instance) with my husband these five
+    years: I have never yet spoken out, in a whisper even, what is in me;
+    never yet could find heart or breath; never yet could bear to hear a
+    word of reference from his lips."
+
+
+It is said there are no secrets in heaven, and in that respect, at least,
+the twentieth century is not unlike the celestial state; and it is almost
+as hard a task for the imagination to comprehend the reserve in all
+personal matters that characterized the mid-nineteenth century as it
+would be to enter into absolute comprehension of the medieval mind; but
+Mrs. Browning's own pathetic deprecation of her feelings regarding this is
+its own passport to the sympathy of the reader. To Miss Mitford's reply,
+full of sympathetic comprehension and regret, Mrs. Browning replied that
+she understood, "and I thank you," she added, "and love you, which is
+better. Now, let us talk of reasonable things." For Mrs. Browning had that
+rare gift and grace of instantly closing the chapter, and turning the
+page, and ceasing from all allusion to any subject of regret, after the
+inevitable reference of the moment had been made. She had the mental
+energy and the moral buoyancy to drop the matter, and this characteristic
+reveals how normal she was, and how far from any morbidness.
+
+Milsand, with a delicacy that Robert Browning never forgot, came to him to
+ask his counsel regarding the inclusion of this tragic accident that had
+left such traces on his wife's genius and character (traces that are
+revealed in immortal expression in her poem, "De Profundis," written some
+years later), and Browning was profoundly touched by his consideration.
+Grasping both Milsand's hands, he exclaimed, "Only a Frenchman could have
+done this!" A friendship initiated under circumstances so unusual, and
+with such reverent intuition of Mrs. Browning's feelings, could not but
+hold its place apart to them both.
+
+The Brownings found Paris almost as ineffable in beauty in the early
+spring as was their Florence. "It's rather dangerous to let the charm of
+Paris work," laughed Mrs. Browning; "the honey will be clogging our feet
+soon, and we shall find it difficult to go away."
+
+They had a delightful winter socially, as well; they went to Ary
+Scheffer's and heard Madame Viardot, then in the height of her artistic
+fame; George Sand sent them tickets for the _première_ of "Les Vacances de
+Pandolphe"; they went to the Vaudeville to see the "Dame aux Camellias,"
+of which Mrs. Browning said that she did not agree with the common cry
+about its immorality. To her it was both moral and human, "but I never
+will go to see it again," she says, "for it almost broke my heart. The
+exquisite acting, the too literal truth to nature...." They met Paul de
+Musset, but missed his brother Alfred that winter, whose poems they both
+cared for.
+
+The elder Browning retained through his life that singular talent for
+caricature drawing that had amused and fascinated his son in the poet's
+childhood; and during his visit to the Brownings in Paris he had produced
+many of these drawings which became the delight of his grandson as well.
+The Paris streets furnished him with some inimitable suggestions, and
+Robert Barrett Browning, to this day, preserves many of these keen and
+humorous and extremely clever drawings of his grandfather. Thierry, the
+historian, who was suffering from blindness, sent to the Brownings a
+request that they would call on him, with which they immediately complied,
+and they were much interested in his views on France. The one
+disappointment of that season was in not meeting Victor Hugo, whose fiery
+hostility to the new _régime_ caused it to be more expedient for him to
+reside quite beyond possible sight of the gilded dome of the Invalides.
+
+In June the Brownings returned to London, where they domiciled themselves
+in Welbeck Street (No. 58), Mrs. Browning's sisters both being near, Mrs.
+Surtees Cook having established herself only twenty doors away, and Miss
+Arabel Barrett being in close proximity in Wimpole Street. They were
+invited to Kenyon's house at Wimbledon, where Landor was a guest, whom
+Mrs. Browning found "looking as young as ever, and full of passionate
+energy," and who talked with characteristic exaggeration of Louis Napoleon
+and of the President of the French nation. Landor "detested" the one and
+"loathed" the other; and as he did not accept Talleyrand's ideal of the
+use of language, he by no means concealed these sentiments. Mazzini
+immediately sought the Brownings, his "pale, spiritual face" shining, and
+his "intense eyes full of melancholy illusions." He brought Mrs. Carlyle
+with him, Mrs. Browning finding her "full of thought, and feeling, and
+character." Miss Mulock, who had then written "The Ogilvies," and had also
+read her title clear to some poetic recognition, was in evidence that
+season, as were Mr. and Mrs. Monckton Milnes, and Fanny Kemble was also a
+brilliant figure in the social life. Nor was the London of that day
+apparently without a taste for the sorceress and the soothsayer, for no
+less a personage than Lord Stanhope was, it seems, showing to the elect
+the "spirits of the sun" in a crystal ball, which Lady Blessington had
+bought from an Egyptian magician and had sold again. Lady Blessington
+declared she had no understanding of the use of it, but it was on record
+that the initiated could therein behold Oremus, Spirit of the Sun. Both
+the crystal ball and the seers were immensely sought, notwithstanding the
+indignation expressed by Mr. Chorley, who regarded the combination of
+social festivities and crystal gazing as eminently scandalous. Which
+element he considered the more dangerous is not on the palimpsest that
+records the story of these days. Lord Stanhope invited the Brownings to
+these occult occasions of intermingled attractions, and Mrs. Browning
+writes: "For my part, I endured both luncheon and spiritual phenomena with
+great equanimity." An optician of London took advantage of the popular
+demand and offered a fine assortment of crystal ball spheres, at prices
+which quite restricted their sale to the possessors of comfortable
+rent-rolls, and Lord Stanhope asserted that a great number of persons
+resorted to these balls to divine the future, without the courage to
+confess it. One wonders as to whom "the American Corinna, in yellow silk,"
+in London, that season, could have been?
+
+The Brownings were invited to a country house in Farnham, to meet Charles
+Kingsley, who impressed them with his genial and tender kindness, and
+while they thought some of his social views wild and theoretical, they
+loved his earnestness and originality, and believed he could not be
+"otherwise than good and noble." It was during this summer (according to
+William Michael Rossetti) that Browning and Dante Gabriel Rossetti first
+met, Rossetti coming to call on them in company with William Allingham. On
+August 30, from Chapel House, Twickenham, Tennyson wrote to Mrs. Browning
+of the birth of his son, Hallam, to which she replied:
+
+    "Thank you and congratulate you from my heart. May God bless you all
+    three.... Will you say to dear Mrs. Tennyson how deeply I sympathize
+    in her happiness...."
+
+
+To this letter Browning added a postscript saying:
+
+    "How happy I am in your happiness, and in the assurance that it is
+    greater than even you can quite know yet. God bless, dear Tennyson,
+    you and all yours."
+
+
+Tennyson wrote again to Mrs. Browning, saying, "... How very grateful your
+little note and Browning's epilogue made me." And he signs himself "Ever
+yours and your husband's." There was a brilliant christening luncheon at
+the home of Monckton Milnes, "and his baby," notes Mrs. Browning, "was
+made to sweep, in India muslin and Brussels lace, among a very large
+circle of admiring guests." The Brownings were especially invited to bring
+their little Penini with them, "and he behaved like an angel, everybody
+said," continued his mother, "and looked very pretty, I said myself; only
+he disgraced us all at last by refusing to kiss the baby on the ground of
+its being '_troppo grande_.'"
+
+To Mrs. Tennyson's note of invitation to the Brownings to attend the
+christening of their child, Mrs. Browning replied that they had planned to
+leave England before that date; "but you offer us an irresistible motive
+for staying, in spite of fogs and cold," she continued, "and we would not
+miss the christening for the world." At the last, however, Mrs. Browning
+was unable to go, so that the poet went alone. After the little ceremony
+Browning took the boy in his arms and tossed him, while Tennyson, looking
+on, exclaimed: "Ah, that is as good as a glass of champagne for him."
+
+Florence Nightingale was a not infrequent visitor of the Brownings that
+summer, and she always followed her calls by a gift of masses of flowers.
+While "Morte d'Arthur" had been written more than ten years previously,
+Tennyson was now evolving the entire plan of the "Idylls of the King."
+Coventry Patmore, who brought the manuscript copy of his own poems,
+published later, for Mr. Browning to read, mentioned to the poets that
+Tennyson was writing a collection of poems on Arthur, which were to be
+united by their subject, after the manner of "In Memoriam," which project
+interested Mrs. Browning greatly. "The work will be full of beauty, I
+don't doubt," she said.
+
+Ruskin invited the Brownings to Denmark Hill to see his Turners, and they
+found the pictures "divine." They liked Ruskin very much, finding him
+"gentle, yet earnest."
+
+During this London sojourn Mr. Browning's old friend, William Johnson Fox,
+who had first encouraged the young poet by praising "not a little, which
+praise comforted me not a little," the verses of his "Incondita"; who had
+written a favorable review of "Pauline"; who had found a publisher for
+"Paracelsus," and had introduced the poet to Macready, again appears, and
+writes to his daughter that he has had "a charming hour" with the
+Brownings, and that he is more fascinated than ever with Mrs. Browning.
+"She talked lots of George Sand, and so beautifully, and she
+silver-electroplated Louis Napoleon!" Mr. Fox adds:[6] "They came in to
+their lodgings late at night, and R. B. says that in the morning twilight
+he saw three pictures on the bedroom wall, and speculated as to whom they
+might be. Light gradually showed the first to be Beatrice Cenci. 'Good,'
+said he; 'in a poetic region.' More light; the second, Lord Byron! Who can
+the third be? And what think you it was? Your (Fox's) sketch (engraved
+chalk portrait) of me?' He made quite a poem and picture of the affair.
+She seems much better; and the young Florentine was gracious."
+
+In November the Brownings again left London for Florence, pausing a week
+in Paris on the way, where they witnessed the picturesque pomp of the
+reception of Louis Napoleon, the day being brilliant with sunshine, and
+the hero of the hour producing an impression by riding entirely alone,
+with at least ten paces between himself and the nearest of his escort,
+till even Charlotte Cushman, sitting at the side of Mrs. Browning,
+watching the spectacle, declared this to be "fine." The "young Florentine"
+was in a state of ecstasy, which he expressed in mingled French and
+Italian.
+
+They journeyed to Florence by the Mont Cenis, stopping a week in Genoa,
+where Mrs. Browning lay ill on her sofa; but the warmth of the Italian
+sunshine soon restored her, and for two days before they left, she was
+able to walk all about the beautiful old city. They visited together the
+Andrea Doria palace, and enjoyed sauntering in a sunshine that was like
+that of June days dropped into the heart of November. They were delighted
+to hear the sound of their "dear Italian" again, and proceeded by
+diligence to Florence, where they took possession of their Casa Guidi
+home, which looked, wrote Mrs. Browning to her sister-in-law, as if they
+had only left it yesterday. The little Penini was "in a state of complete
+agitation" on entering Florence, through having heard so much talk of it,
+and expressed his emotion by repeated caresses and embraces. Mrs. Browning
+shared the same amazement at the contrast of climate between Turin and
+Genoa that twentieth-century travelers experience; Turin having been so
+cold that they were even obliged to have a fire all night, while at Genoa
+they were "gasping for breath, with all the windows and doors open, blue
+skies burning overhead, and no air stirring." But this very heat was
+life-giving to Mrs. Browning as they lingered on the terraces, gazing on
+the beautiful bay encircled by its sweep of old marble palaces. She even
+climbed half-way up the lighthouse for the view, resting there while
+Browning climbed to the top, for that incomparable outlook which every
+visitor endeavors to enjoy. In Florence there were the "divine sunsets"
+over the Arno, and Penini's Italian nurse rushing in to greet the child,
+exclaiming, "_Dio mio, come e bellino!_" They "caught up their ancient
+traditions" just where they left them, Mrs. Browning observes, though Mr.
+Browning, "demoralized by the boulevards," missed the stir and intensity
+of Parisian life. They found Powers, the sculptor, changing his location,
+and Mr. Lytton (the future Earl), who was an attaché at the English
+Embassy, became a frequent and a welcome visitor. In a letter to Mr.
+Kenyon Mrs. Browning mentions that Mr. Lytton is interested in
+manifestations of spiritualism, and had informed her that, to his father's
+great satisfaction (his father being Sir E. Bulwer Lytton), these
+manifestations had occurred at Knebworth, the Lytton home in England.
+Tennyson's brother, who had married an Italian lady, was in Florence,
+and the American Minister, Mr. Marsh. With young Lytton at this time,
+Poetry was an article of faith, and nothing would have seemed to him more
+improbable, even had any of his clairvoyants foretold it, than his future
+splendid career as Viceroy of India.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE PONTE VECCHIO AND THE ARNO, FLORENCE.]
+
+
+Mrs. Browning was reading Prudhon that winter, and also Swedenborg,
+Lamartine, and other of the French writers. Browning was writing from time
+to time many of the lyrics that appear in the Collection entitled "Men and
+Women," while on Mrs. Browning had already dawned the plan of "Aurora
+Leigh." They read the novel of Dumas, _Diane de Lys_, Browning's verdict
+on it being that it was clever, but outrageous as to the morals; and Mrs.
+Browning rejoiced greatly in Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's
+Cabin," saying of Mrs. Stowe, "No woman ever had such a success, such a
+fame." All in all, this winter of 1852-1853 was a very happy one to the
+poets, what with their work, their friends, playing with the little
+Wiedemann (Penini), the names seeming interchangeably used, and their
+reading, which included everything from poetry and romance to German
+mysticism, social economics, and French criticism. Mrs. Browning found one
+of the best apologies for Louis Napoleon in Lamartine's work on the
+Revolution of '48; and she read, with equal interest, that of Louis Blanc
+on the same period. In April "Colombe's Birthday" was produced at the
+Haymarket Theater in London, the role of the heroine being taken by Miss
+Helen Faucit, afterward Lady Martin. The author had no financial interest
+in this production, which ran for two weeks, and was spoken of by London
+critics as holding the house in fascinated attention, with other
+appreciative phrases.
+
+Mrs. Browning watches the drama of Italian politics, and while she
+regarded Mazzini as noble, she also felt him to be unwise, a verdict that
+time has since justified. "We see a great deal of Frederick Tennyson,"
+she writes; "Robert is very fond of him, and so am I. He too writes poems,
+and prints them, though not for the public." Their mutual love of music
+was a strong bond between Browning and Mr. Tennyson, who had a villa on
+the Fiesolean slope, with a large hall in which he was reported to "sit in
+the midst of his forty fiddlers."
+
+For the coming summer they had planned a retreat into Giotto's country,
+the Casentino, but they finally decided on Bagni di Lucca again, where
+they remained from July till October, Mr. Browning writing "In a Balcony"
+during this _villeggiatura_. Before leaving Florence they enjoyed an
+idyllic day at Pratolina with Mrs. Kinney, the wife of the American
+Minister to the Court of Turin, and the mother of Edmund Clarence Stedman.
+The royal residences of the old Dukes of Tuscany were numerous, but among
+them all, that at Pratolina, so associated with Francesco Primo and Bianca
+Capella, is perhaps the most interesting, and here Mrs. Kinney drove her
+guests, where they picnicked on a hillside which their hostess called the
+Mount of Vision because Mrs. Browning stood on it; Mr. Browning spoke of
+the genius of his wife, "losing himself in her glory," said Mrs. Kinney
+afterward, while Mrs. Browning lay on the grass and slept. The American
+Minister and Mrs. Kinney were favorite guests in Casa Guidi, where they
+passed with the Brownings the last evening before the poets set out for
+their summer retreat. Mrs. Browning delighted in Mr. Kinney's views of
+Italy, and his belief in its progress and its comprehension of liberty.
+The youthful Florentine, Penini, was delighted at the thought of the
+change, and his devotion to his mother was instanced one night when
+Browning playfully refused to give his wife a letter, and Pen, taking the
+byplay seriously, fairly smothered her in his clinging embrace,
+exclaiming, "Never mind, mine darling Ba!" He had caught up his mother's
+pet name, "Ba," and often used it. It was this name to which she refers
+in the poem beginning,
+
+  "I have a name, a little name,
+      Uncadenced for the ear."
+
+
+Beside the Pratolina excursion, Mr. Lytton gave a little reception for
+them before the Florentine circle dissolved for the summer, asking a few
+friends to meet the Brownings at his villa on Bellosguardo, where they all
+sat out on the terrace, and Mrs. Browning made the tea, and they feasted
+on nectar and ambrosia in the guise of cream and strawberries.
+
+"Such a view!" said Mrs. Browning of that evening. "Florence dissolving in
+the purple of the hills, and the stars looking on." Mrs. Browning's love
+for Florence grew stronger with every year. That it was her son's native
+city was to her a deeply significant fact, for playfully as they called
+him the "young Florentine," there was behind the light jest a profound
+recognition of the child's claim to his native country. Still, with all
+this response to the enchantment of Florence, they were planning to live
+in Paris, after another winter (which they wished to pass in Rome), as the
+elder Browning and his daughter Sarianna were now to live in the French
+capital, and Robert Browning was enamored of the brilliant, abounding
+life, and the art, and splendor of privilege, and opportunity in Paris. "I
+think it too probable that I may not be able to bear two successive
+winters in the North," said Mrs. Browning, "but in that case it will be
+easy to take a flight for a few winter months into Italy, and we shall
+regard Paris, where Robert's father and sister are waiting for us, as our
+fixed place of residence." This plan, however, was never carried out, as
+Italy came to lay over them a still deeper spell, which it was impossible
+to break. Mr. Lytton, with whom Mrs. Browning talked of all these plans
+and dreams that evening on his terrace, had just privately printed his
+drama, "Clytemnestra," which Mrs. Browning found "full of promise,"
+although "too ambitious" because after Æschylus. But this young poet,
+afterward to be so widely known in the realm of poetry as "Owen Meredith,"
+and as Lord Lytton in the realm of diplomacy and statesmanship, impressed
+her at the time as possessing an incontestable "faculty" in poetry, that
+made her expect a great deal from him in the future. She invited him to
+visit them in their sylvan retreat that summer at Bagni di Lucca, an
+invitation that he joyously accepted. Some great _savant_, who was "strong
+in veritable Chinese," found his way to Casa Guidi, as most of the
+wandering minstrels of the time did, and "nearly assassinated" the
+mistress of the _ménage_ with an interminable analysis of a Japanese
+novel. Mr. Lytton, who was present, declared she grew paler and paler
+every moment, which she afterward asserted was not because of sympathy
+with the heroine of this complex tale! But this formidable scholar had a
+passport to Mrs. Browning's consideration by bringing her a little black
+profile of her beloved Isa, which gave "the air of her head," and then,
+said Mrs. Browning, laughingly, "how could I complain of a man who rather
+flattered me than otherwise, and compared me to Isaiah?"
+
+But at last, after the middle of July, what with poets, and sunsets from
+terraces, and savants, and stars, they really left their Florence
+"dissolving in her purple hills" behind them, and bestowed themselves in
+Casa Tolomei, at the Baths, where a row of plane trees stood before the
+door, in which the cicale sang all day, and solemn, mysterious mountains
+kept watch all day and night. There was a garden, lighted by the fireflies
+at night, and Penini mistook the place for Eden. His happiness overflowed
+in his prayers, and he thriftily united the petition that God would "mate
+him dood" with the supplication that God would also "tate him on a
+dontey," thus uniting all possible spiritual and temporal aspirations. The
+little fellow was wild with happiness in this enchanted glade, where the
+poets were "safe among mountains, shut in with a row of seven plane-trees
+joined at top." Mr. Browning was still working on his lyrics, of which his
+wife had seen very few. "We neither of us show our work to the other till
+it is finished," she said. She recognized that an artist must work in
+solitude until the actual result is achieved.
+
+
+[Illustration: CASA GUIDI
+
+  "_I heard last night a little child go singing_
+  _'Neath Casa Guidi windows, by the church._"
+
+Casa Guidi Windows.]
+
+
+It seems that Mr. Chorley in London had fallen into depressed spirits that
+summer, indulging in the melancholy meditations that none of his friends
+loved him, beyond seeing in him a "creature to be eaten," and that, having
+furnished them with a banquet, their attentions to him were over (a most
+regrettable state of mind, one may observe, _en passant_, and one of those
+spiritual pitfalls which not only Mr. Chorley in particular, but all of us
+in general would do particularly well to avoid). The letter that Mrs.
+Browning wrote to him wonderfully reveals her all-comprehending sympathy
+and her spiritual buoyancy and intellectual poise. "You are very wrong,"
+she says to him, "and I am very right to upbraid you. I take the pen from
+Robert--he would take it if I did not. We scramble a little for the pen
+which is to tell you this, and be dull in the reiteration, rather than not
+to instruct you properly.... I quite understand how a whole life may seem
+rumpled and creased--torn for the moment; only you will live it smooth
+again, dear Mr. Chorley, take courage. You have time and strength and good
+aims; and human beings have been happy with much less.... I think we
+belied ourselves to you in England. If you knew how, at that time, Robert
+was vexed and worn! why, he was not the same, even to me!... But then and
+now believe that he loved and loves you. Set him down as a friend, as
+somebody to rest on, after all; and don't fancy that because we are away
+here in the wilderness (which blossoms as the rose, to one of us, at
+least) we may not be full of affectionate thoughts and feelings toward you
+in your different sort of life in London." The lovely spirit goes on to
+remind Mr. Chorley that they have a spare bedroom "which opens of itself
+at the thought of you," and that if he can trust himself so far from home,
+she begs him to try it for their sakes. "Come and look in our faces, and
+learn us more by heart, and see whether we are not two friends?"
+
+Surely, that life was rich, whatever else it might be denied, that had
+Elizabeth Browning for a friend. Her genius for friendship was not less
+marvelous, nor less to be considered, than her genius as a poet. Indeed,
+truly speaking, the one, in its ideal fullness and completeness,
+comprehends the other.
+
+The summer days among the beautiful hills, and by the green, rushing
+river, were made aboundingly happy to the Brownings by the presence of
+their friends, the Storys, who shared these vast solitudes. The Storys had
+a villa perched on the top of the hill, just above the Brownings', the
+terrace shaded with vines, and the great mountains towering all around
+them, while a swift mountain brook swept by under an arched bridge, its
+force turning picturesque mills far down the valley. Under the shadow of
+the chestnut trees fringing its banks, Shelley had once pushed his boat.
+"Of society," wrote Story to Lowell, "there is none we care to meet but
+the Brownings, and with them we have constant and delightful intercourse,
+interchanging long evenings, two or three times a week, and driving and
+walking whenever we meet. They are so simple, unaffected, and sympathetic.
+Both are busily engaged in writing, he on a volume of lyrics, and she on a
+tale or novel in verse."
+
+This "tale" must have been "Aurora Leigh." The wives of the poet and the
+sculptor held hilarious intercourse while going back and forth between
+each other's houses on donkey-back, with an enjoyment hardly eclipsed by
+that of Penini himself, whose prayer that God would let him ride on
+"dontey-back" was so aboundingly granted that the child might well believe
+in the lavishness of divine mercies. Browning and Story walked beside and
+obediently held the reins of their wives' steeds, that no mishap might
+occur. How the picture of these Arcadian days, in those vast leafy
+solitudes, peopled only by gods and muses, the attendant "elementals" of
+these choice spirits, flashes out through more than the half century that
+has passed since those days of their joyous intercourse. There was a night
+when Story went alone to take tea with the Brownings, staying till nearly
+midnight, and Browning accompanied him home in the mystic moonlight. Mrs.
+Browning, who apparently shared her little son's predilections for the
+donkey as a means of transportation, would go for a morning ride, Browning
+walking beside her as slowly as possible, to keep pace with the donkey's
+degree of speed.
+
+Into this Arcady came, by some untraced dispensation of the gods, a French
+master of recitations, who had taught Rachel, and had otherwise allied
+himself with the great. M. Alexandre brought his welcome with him, in his
+delightful recitations from the poets. Mr. Lytton, having accepted Mrs.
+Browning's invitation given to him on his Bellosguardo terrace, now
+appeared; and the Storys and the Brownings organized a _festa_, in true
+Italian spirit, in an excursion they should all make to Prato Fiortito.
+
+Prato Fiortito is six miles from Bagni di Lucca, perpendicularly up and
+down, "but such a vision of divine scenery," said Mrs. Browning. High
+among the mountains, Bagni di Lucca is yet surrounded by higher peaks of
+the Apennines. The journey to Prato Fiortito is like going up and down a
+wall, the only path for the donkeys being in the beds of the torrents that
+cut their way down in the spring.
+
+Here, after "glorious climbing," in which Mrs. Browning distinguished
+herself no less than the others, they arrived at the little old church,
+set amid majestic limestone mountains and embowered in purple shade. Here
+they feasted, Penini overcome with delight, and on shawls spread under the
+great chestnut trees Mrs. Browning and Mrs. Story were made luxuriously
+comfortable, while they all talked and read, M. Alexandre reciting from
+the French dramatists, and Lytton reading from his "Clytemnestra." The
+luncheon was adorned by a mass of wild strawberries, picked on the spot,
+by Browning, Story, Lytton, and Alexandre, while the ladies co-operated in
+the industry at this honestly earned feast by assisting to hull the
+berries. The bottle of cream and package of sugar tucked away in the
+picnic basket added all that heart could desire to this ambrosial
+luncheon. Mrs. Story, whom Mrs. Browning described as "a sympathetic,
+graceful woman, fresh and innocent in face and thought," was a most
+agreeable companion; and she and Mrs. Browning frequently exchanged
+feminine gossip over basins of strawberries and milk in each other's
+houses, for strawberries abounded in these hills. "If a tree is felled in
+the forests," said Mrs. Browning, "strawberries spring up just as
+mushrooms might, and the peasants sell them for just nothing."
+
+One night when the Brownings were having tea with the Storys, the talk
+turned on Hawthorne. Story, of course, knew the great romancer, whom the
+Brownings had not then met and about whom they were curious. "Hawthorne is
+a man who talks with a pen," said Story; "he does not open socially to his
+intimate friends any more than he does to strangers. It isn't his way to
+converse." Mrs. Browning had then just been reading the "Blithedale
+Romance," in which she had sought unavailingly, it seems, for some more
+personal clue to the inner life of its author.
+
+On a brilliant August day the Brownings and the Storys fared forth on a
+grand excursion on donkey-back, to Benabbia, a hilltown, perched on one
+of the peaks. Above it on the rocks is a colossal cross, traced by some
+thunder-bolt of the gods, cut in the solid stone. From this excursion they
+all returned after dark, in terror of their lives lest the donkeys slip
+down the sheer precipices; but the scenery was "exquisite, past all
+beauty." Mrs. Browning was spell-bound with its marvelous sublimity, as
+they looked around "on the world of innumerable mountains bound faintly
+with the gray sea, and not a human habitation."
+
+Mrs. Browning was then reading the poems of Coventry Patmore, just
+published, of which Browning had read the manuscript in London in the
+previous year. The poems of Alexander Smith had also appeared at this
+time, and in him Mrs. Browning found "an opulence of imagery," but a
+defect as to the intellectual part of poetry. With her characteristic
+tolerance, she instanced his youth in plea of this defect, and said that
+his images were "flowers thrown to him by the gods, gods beautiful and
+fragrant, but having no root either in Etna or Olympus." Enamored, as
+ever, of novels, she was also reading "Vilette," which she thought a
+strong story, though lacking charm, and Mrs. Gaskell's "Ruth," which
+pleased her greatly.
+
+With no dread of death, Mrs. Browning had a horror of the "rust of age,"
+the touch of age "which is the thickening of the mortal mask between
+souls. Why talk of age," she would say, "when we are all young in soul and
+heart?... Be sure that it's highly moral to be young as long as possible.
+Women who dress 'suitably to their years' (that is, as hideously as
+possible) are a disgrace to their sex, aren't they now?" she would
+laughingly declare.
+
+This summer in the Apennines at Bagni di Lucca had been a fruitful one to
+Browning in his poetic work. It became one of constant development, and,
+as Edmund Gosse points out, "of clarification and increasing selection."
+He had already written many of his finest lyrics, "Any Wife to Any
+Husband," "The Guardian Angel," and "Saul"; and in these and succeeding
+months he produced that miracle of beauty, the poem called "The Flight of
+the Duchess"; and "A Grammarian's Funeral," "The Statue and the Bust,"
+"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," "Fra Lippo Lippi," and "Andrea del
+Sarto." To Milsand, Browning wrote that he was at work on lyrics "with
+more music and painting than before."
+
+The idyllic summer among the grand chestnut trees came to an end, as
+summers always do, and October found the Brownings again in Casa Guidi,
+though preparing to pass the winter in Rome. Verdi had just completed his
+opera of "Trovatore," which was performed at the Pergola in Florence, and
+the poets found it "very passionate and dramatic."
+
+In November they fared forth for Rome, "an exquisite journey of eight
+days," chronicled Mrs. Browning, "seeing the great monastery and triple
+church of Assisi, and that wonderful passion of waters at Terni."
+
+It was the picturesque Rome of the popes that still remained in that
+winter, and the Eternal City was aglow with splendid festivals and
+processions and with artistic interest. The Brownings caught something of
+its spirit, even as they came within view of the colossal dome of St.
+Peter's, and they entered the city in the highest spirits, "Robert and
+Penini singing," related Mrs. Browning, "actually, for the child was
+radiant and flushed with the continual change of air and scene." The
+Storys had engaged an apartment for them, and they found "lighted fires
+and lamps," and all comfort.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE CLASPED HANDS OF ROBERT AND ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
+
+Cast in bronze from the model taken by Harriet Hosmer in Rome, 1853.
+
+The original is in the possession of the author.]
+
+
+That winter of 1853-1854 still stands out in the Roman panorama as one of
+exceptional brilliancy. There was a galaxy of artists,--Story, who had
+already won fame on two continents; William Page, who believed he had
+discovered the secret of Titian's coloring; Crawford, and "young
+Leighton," as Mrs. Browning called the future president of the Royal
+Academy; Gibson, and his brilliant pupil, Harriet Hosmer; Fisher, who
+painted a portrait of Browning, and also of Penini, for his own use to
+exhibit in London. It was during this winter that Miss Hosmer took the
+cast of the "Clasped Hands" of the Brownings, which was put into bronze,
+and which must always remain a work of the most tender interest. Mrs.
+Browning was very fond of "Hatty," as she called her, and in a letter to
+her Isa she described a pretty scene when Lady Marian Alford, the daughter
+of the Duke of Northampton, knelt before the girl sculptor and placed on
+her finger a ring of diamonds surrounding a ruby. Browning's early friend,
+M. de Ripert-Monclar, to whom he had dedicated his "Paracelsus," and
+Lockhart, were also in Rome; and Leighton was completing his great canvas
+of Cimabue's Madonna carried in procession through the streets of
+Florence.
+
+The Brownings were domiciled in the Bocca di Leone, while the Storys were
+in the Piazza di Spagna; Thackeray and his two daughters were close at
+hand, in and out at the Brownings', with his "talk of glittering dust
+swept out of salons." There were Hans Christian Andersen, and Fanny
+Kemble, with her sister, Mrs. Sartoris, and Lady Oswald, a sister of Lord
+Elgin. Thackeray's daughter, Miss Anne Thackeray (now Lady Ritchie), still
+finds vivid her girlish memory of Mrs. Browning,--"a slight figure in a
+thin black gown and the unpretentious implements of her magic," by her
+sofa, on a little table. Lady Ritchie turns back to her diary of that
+winter to find in it another of her early impressions of Mrs. Browning,
+"in soft, falling flounces of black silk, with her heavy curls drooping,
+and a thin gold chain around her neck." This chain held a tiny locket of
+crystal set in coils of gold, which she had worn from childhood, not at
+all as an ornament, but as a little souvenir. On her death Mr. Browning
+put into it some of her hair, and gave the treasured relic to Kate Field,
+from whom it came later into the possession of the writer of this book.
+Lady Ritchie recalls one memorable evening that season in the salon of
+Mrs. Sartoris, when the guests assembled in the lofty Roman drawing-room,
+full of "flowers and light, of comfort and color." She recalls how the
+swinging lamps were lighted, shedding a soft glow; how the grand piano
+stood open, and there was music, and "tables piled with books," and
+flowers everywhere. The hostess was in a pearl satin gown with flowing
+train, and sat by a round table reading aloud from poems of Mr. Browning,
+when the poet himself was announced, "and as she read, in her wonderful
+muse-like way, he walked in." All the lively company were half laughing
+and half protesting, and Mrs. Kemble, with her regal air, called him to
+her side, to submit to him some disputed point, which he evaded. Mrs.
+Sartoris had a story, with which she amused her guests, of a luncheon with
+the Brownings, somewhere in Italy, where, when she rose to go, and
+remarked how delightful it had been, and the other guests joined in their
+expressions of enjoyment, Mr. Browning impulsively exclaimed: "Come back
+and sup with us, do!" And Mrs. Browning, with the dismay of the housewife,
+cried: "Oh, Robert, there is no supper, nothing but the remains of the
+pie." To which the poet rejoined: "Then come back and finish the pie."
+
+Mrs. Browning was deeply attached to Fanny Kemble. She describes her, at
+this time, as "looking magnificent, with her black hair and radiant smile.
+A very noble creature, indeed," added Mrs. Browning; "somewhat unelastic,
+attached to the old modes of thought and convention, but noble in
+qualities and defects.... Mrs. Sartoris is genial and generous ... and her
+house has the best society in Rome, and exquisite music, of course."
+
+Mrs. Browning often joined her husband in excursions to galleries,
+villas, and ruins; and when in the Sistine Chapel, on a memorable
+festival, they heard "the wrong Miserere," she yet found it "very fine,
+right or wrong, and overcoming in its pathos." M. Goltz, the Austrian
+Minister, was an acquaintance whom the Brownings found "witty and
+agreeable," and Mrs. Browning called the city "a palimpsest Rome," with
+its records written all over the antique.
+
+The sorrow of the Storys over the death of a little son shadowed Mrs.
+Browning, and she feared for her own Penini, but as the winter went on she
+joyfully wrote of him that he "had not dropped a single rose-leaf from his
+cheeks," and with her sweet tenderness of motherly love she adds that he
+is "a poetical child, really, and in the best sense. He is full of
+sweetness and vivacity together, of imagination and grace," and she
+pictures his "blue, far-reaching eyes, and the innocent face framed in
+golden ringlets." Mrs. Kemble came to them two or three times a week, and
+they had long talks, "we three together," records Mrs. Browning. Mr. Page
+occupied the apartment just over that of the Brownings, and they saw much
+of him. "His portrait of Miss Cushman is a miracle," exclaimed Mrs.
+Browning. Page begged to paint a portrait of the poet, of which Mrs.
+Browning said that he "painted a picture of Robert like an Italian, and
+then presented it to me like a prince." The coloring was Venetian, and the
+picture was at first considered remarkable, but its color has entirely
+vanished now, so that it seems its painter was not successful in
+surprising the secret of Titian. In the spring of 1910 Mr. Barrett
+Browning showed this picture to some friends in his villa near Florence,
+and its thick, opaque surface hardly retained even a suggestion of color.
+
+Not the least of Mrs. Browning's enjoyment of that winter was the pleasure
+that Rome gave to her little son. "Penini is overwhelmed with attentions
+and gifts of all kinds," she wrote, and she described a children's party
+given for him by Mrs. Page, who decorated the table with a huge cake,
+bearing "Penini" in sugar letters, where he sat at the head and did the
+honors. Browning all this time was writing, although the social
+allurements made sad havoc on his time. They wandered under the great ilex
+trees of the Pincio, and gazed at the Monte Mario pine. Then, as now,
+every one drove in that circular route on the Pincian hill, where
+carriages meet each other in passing every five minutes. With the Storys
+and other friends they often went for long drives and frequent picnics on
+the wonderful Campagna, that vast green sea that surrounds Rome, the
+Campagna Mystica. On one day Mr. Browning met "Hatty" Hosmer on the
+Spanish Steps, and said to her: "Next Saturday Ba and I are going to
+Albano on a picnic till Monday, and you and Leighton are to go with us."
+"Why this extravagance?" laughingly questioned Miss Hosmer. "On account of
+a cheque, a _buona grazia_, that Ticknor and Fields of Boston have
+sent--one they were not in the least obliged to send," replied the poet.
+
+In those days there was no international copyright, but Mr. Browning's
+Boston publishers needed no legal constraint to act with ideal honor. So
+on the appointed morning, a _partie carré_ of artists--two poets, one
+sculptor, one painter--drove gayly through the Porta San Giovanni, on that
+road to Albano, with its wonderful views of the Claudian aqueducts in the
+distance, through whose arches the blue sky is bluer, and beyond which are
+the violet-hued Alban hills. Then, as now, the road led by the Casa dei
+Spirite, with its haunting associations, and its strange mural decorations
+of specters and wraiths. Past that overhanging cliff, with its tragic
+legend, they drove, encountering the long procession of wine carts, with
+their tinkling bells, and the dogs guarding the sleeping padrones. Passing
+the night in Albano, the next day they mounted donkeys for their excursion
+into the Alban hills, past lonely monasteries, up the heights of Rocca
+di Papa, where the traveler comes on the ancient camping-ground of
+Hannibal, and where they see the padres and acolytes sunning themselves on
+the slopes of Monte Cavo; on again, to the rocky terraces from which one
+looks down on Alba Longa and the depths of Lago di Nemi, beneath whose
+waters is still supposed to be the barque of Caligula, and across the
+expanse of the green Campagna to where Æneas landed.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE CAMPAGNA AND RUINS OF THE CLAUDIAN AQUEDUCTS, ROME.
+
+  "_There, branching from the brickwork's cleft,_
+  _Some old tomb's ruin...._"
+
+Two in the Campagna. ]
+
+
+Miss Hosmer is the authority on this poetic pilgrimage, and she related
+that they all talked of art, of the difficulties of art,--those
+encountered by the poet, the sculptor, and the painter,--each regarding
+his own medium of expression as the most difficult. Mrs. Browning's
+"Hatty" had bestowed in her bag a volume of Mr. Browning's, and on the
+homeward journey from Albano to Rome he read aloud to them his "Saul." At
+the half-way house on the Campagna, the Torre di Mezza, they paused, to
+gaze at the "weird watcher of the Roman Campagna," the monument to
+Apuleia, whose ruins are said to have assumed her features.
+
+Nothing in all the classic atmosphere of Rome, filled with the most
+impressive associations of its mighty past, appealed more strongly to the
+Brownings than the glorious Campagna, with its apparently infinite open
+space, brilliant with myriads of flowers, and the vast billowing slopes
+that break like green waves against the purple hills, in their changeful
+panorama of clouds and mists and snow-crowned heights dazzling under a
+glowing sun.
+
+Fascinating as this winter in Rome had been to them, rich in friendships
+and in art, the Brownings were yet glad to return to their Florence with
+the May days, to give diligence and devotion to their poetic work, which
+nowhere proceeded so felicitously as in Casa Guidi.
+
+Browning was now definitely engaged on the poems that were to make up the
+"Men and Women." Mrs. Browning was equally absorbed in "Aurora Leigh."
+Each morning after their Arcadian repast of coffee and fruit, he went to
+his study, and she to the _salotto_, whose windows opened on the terrace
+looking out on old gray San Felice where she always wrote, to devote
+themselves to serious work. "Aurora Leigh" proceeded rapidly some
+mornings, and again its progress would remind her of the web of Penelope.
+During this summer Browning completed "In a Balcony," and wrote the "Holy
+Cross Day," the "Epistle of Karnish," and "Ben Karshook's Wisdom." Like
+his wife, Browning held poetry to be above all other earthly interests; he
+was a poet by nature and by grace, and his vast range of scholarship, his
+"British-Museum-Library memory," and his artistic feeling and taste, all
+conserved to this one end. But poetry to him was not outside, but
+inclusive of the very fullest human life. Mrs. Browning's lines,
+
+        "... No perfect artist is developed here
+  From any imperfect woman,..."
+
+embodied his convictions as well, for man and woman alike. He had that
+royal gift of life in its fullness, an almost boundless capacity of
+enjoyment, and to him life meant the completest development and exercise
+of all its powers.
+
+The Brownings found their Florentine circle all in evidence. Mr. Lytton, a
+favorite and familiar visitor at Casa Guidi; Frederick Tennyson (and
+perhaps his "forty fiddlers" as well), and the Trollopes, Isa Blagden, and
+various wandering minstrels. They passed evenings with Mr. Lytton in his
+villa, and would walk home "to the song of nightingales by starlight and
+firefly light." To Mrs. Browning Florence looked more beautiful than ever
+after Rome. "I love the very stones of it," she said. Limitations of
+finance kept them in Florence all that summer. "A ship was to have brought
+us in something, and brought us in nothing," she explained to a friend in
+England, "and the nothing had a discount, beside." But she took comfort in
+the fact that Penini was quite as well and almost as rosy as ever, despite
+the intense heat; and the starlight and the song of the nightingales were
+not without consolation. A letter from Milsand ("one of the noblest and
+most intellectual men," says Mrs. Browning of him) came, and they were
+interested in his arraignment of the paralysis of imagination in
+literature. In September she hears from Miss Mitford of her failing
+health, and tenderly writes: "May the divine love in the face of our Lord
+Jesus Christ shine upon you day and night, with His ineffable tenderness."
+Mrs. Browning's religious feeling was always of that perfect reliance on
+the Divine Love that is the practical support of life. "For my own part,"
+she continues, "I have been long convinced that what we call death is a
+mere incident in life.... I believe that the body of flesh is a mere husk
+that drops off at death, while the spiritual body emerges in glorious
+resurrection at once. Swedenborg says some people do not immediately
+realize that they have passed death, which seems to me highly probable. It
+is curious that Frederick Denison Maurice takes this precise view of the
+resurrection, with apparent unconsciousness of what Swedenborg has stated,
+and that I, too, long before I had ever read Swedenborg, or had even heard
+the name of Maurice, came to the same conclusion.... I believe in an
+active, human life, beyond death, as before it, an uninterrupted life."
+Mrs. Browning would have found herself in harmony with that spiritual
+genius, Dr. William James, who said: "And if our needs outrun the visible
+universe, why may not that be a sign that the invisible universe is there?
+Often our faith in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the
+result come true." Faith is the divine vision, and no one ever more
+absolutely realized this truth than Elizabeth Browning.
+
+  "Ah, blessed vision! blood of God!
+    My spirit beats her mortal bars,
+  As down dark tides the glory slides,
+    And star-like mingles with the stars."
+
+At another time Mrs. Browning remarked that she should fear for a revealed
+religion incapable of expansion, according to the needs of man; while Dr.
+James has said, "Believe what is in the line of your needs." Many
+similarities of expression reveal to how wonderful a degree Mrs. Browning
+had intuitively grasped phases of truth that became the recognized
+philosophy of a succeeding generation, and which were stamped by the
+brilliant and profound genius of William James, the greatest psychologist
+of the nineteenth century. "What comes from God has life in it," said Mrs.
+Browning, "and certainly from the growth of all living things, spiritual
+growth cannot be excepted."
+
+The summer passed "among our own nightingales and fireflies," playfully
+said Mrs. Browning, and in the autumn Mrs. Sartoris stopped to see them,
+on her way to Rome, "singing passionately and talking eloquently."
+
+Notwithstanding some illness, Mrs. Browning completed four thousand lines
+of "Aurora Leigh" before the new year of 1855, in which were expressed all
+her largest philosophic thought, and her deepest insight into the problems
+of life. Fogazzaro, whose recent death has deprived Italy of her greatest
+literary inspirer since Carducci, said of "Aurora Leigh" that he wished
+the youth of Italy might study this great poem,--"those who desire poetic
+fame that they might gain a high conception of poetry; the weak, in that
+they might find stimulus for strength; the sad and discouraged, in that
+they might find comfort and encouragement." It was this eminent Italian
+novelist and Senator (the King of Italy naming a man as Senator, not in
+the least because of any political reasons, but to confer on him the honor
+of recognition of his genius in Literature, Science, or Art, and a very
+inconvenient, however highly prized, honor he often finds it),--Senator
+Antonio Fogazzaro, who contributed, to an Italian biography[7] of the
+Brownings by Fanny Zampini, Contessa Salazar, an "Introduction" which is a
+notable piece of critical appreciation of the wedded poets from the
+Italian standpoint. The Senator records himself as believing that few
+poets can be read "with so much intellectual pleasure and spiritual good;
+for if the works of Robert and Elizabeth Browning surprise us by the
+vigorous originality of their thought," he continues, "they also show us a
+rare and salutary spectacle,--two souls as great in their moral character
+as in their poetic imagination. 'Aurora Leigh' I esteem Mrs. Browning's
+masterpiece.... The ideal poet is a prophet, inspired by God to proclaim
+eternal truth...."
+
+The student of Italian literature will find a number of critical
+appreciations of the Brownings, written within the past forty or fifty
+years, some of which offer no little interest. "Every man has two
+countries, his own and Italy," and the land they had made their own in
+love and devotion returned this devotion in measure overflowing.
+
+Robert and Elizabeth Browning would have been great,--even immortally
+great, as man and woman, if they had not been great poets. They both
+lived, in a simple, natural way, the essential life of the spirit, the
+life of scholarship and noble culture, of the profound significance of
+thought, of creative energy, of wide interest in all the important
+movements of the day, and of beautiful and sincere friendships.
+
+  "O life, O poetry,
+  Which means life in life,"
+
+wrote Mrs. Browning.
+
+The character of Mrs. Browning has been so often portrayed as that of some
+abnormal being, half-nervous invalid, half-angel, as if she were a
+special creation of nature with no particular relation to the great active
+world of men and women, that it is quite time to do away with the category
+of nonsense and literary hallucination. One does not become less than
+woman by being more. Mrs. Browning fulfilled every sweetest relation in
+life as daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother; and her life was not
+the less normal in that it was one of exceptional power and exaltation.
+She saw in Art the most potent factor for high service, and she held that
+it existed for Love's sake, for the sake of human co-operation with the
+purposes of God.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+1855-1861
+
+                  "Inward evermore
+  To outward,--so in life, and so in art
+  Which still is life."
+
+            "... I love thee with the breath,
+  Smiles, tears, of all my life!--and, if God choose,
+  I shall but love thee better after death."
+
+
+LONDON LIFE--AN INTERLUDE IN PARIS--"AURORA LEIGH"--FLORENTINE DAYS--"MEN
+    AND WOMEN"--THE HAWTHORNES--"THE OLD YELLOW BOOK"--A SUMMER IN
+    NORMANDY--THE ETERNAL CITY--THE STORYS AND OTHER FRIENDS--LILIES OF
+    FLORENCE--"IT IS BEAUTIFUL!"
+
+
+The Florentine winter is by no means an uninterrupted dream of sunshine
+and roses; the tramontana sweeps down from the encircling Apennines, with
+its peculiarly piercing cold that penetrates the entire system with the
+unerring precision of the Röentgen ray; torrents of icy rains fall; and
+the purple hills, on whose crest St. Domenico met St. Benedict, are
+shrouded in clouds and mist. All the loveliness of Florence seems to be
+utterly effaced, till one questions if it existed except as a mirage; but
+when the storm ceases, and the sun shines again, there is an instantaneous
+transformation. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the spell of
+enchantment resumes its sway over the Flower Town, and all is forgiven and
+forgotten.
+
+The winter of 1855 was bitterly cold, and by January the Brownings fairly
+barricaded themselves in two rooms which could best be heated, and in
+these fires were kept up by day as well as night. In April, however, the
+divine days came again, and the green hillslope from the Palazzo Pitti to
+the Boboli Gardens was gay with flowers. Mr. Browning gave four hours
+every day to dictating his poems to a friend who was transcribing them for
+him. Mrs. Browning had completed some seven thousand lines of "Aurora
+Leigh," but not one of these had yet been copied for publication. Various
+hindrances beset them, but finally in June they left for England, their
+most important impedimenta being sixteen thousand lines of poetry, almost
+equally divided between them, comprising his manuscript for "Men and
+Women," and hers for "Aurora Leigh," complete, save for the last three
+books. The change was by no means unalloyed joy. To give up, even
+temporarily, their "dream-life of Florence," leaving the old tapestries
+and pre-Giotto pictures, for London lodgings, was not exhilarating; but
+after a week in Paris they found themselves in an apartment in No. 13
+Dorset Street, Manchester Square, where they remained until October, every
+hour filled with engagements or work. Proof-sheets were coming in at all
+hours; likewise friends, with the usual contingent of the "devastators of
+a day," and all that fatigue and interruption and turmoil that lies in
+wait for the pilgrim returning to his former home, beset and entangled
+them. Mrs. Browning's youngest brother, Alfred Barrett, was married that
+summer to his cousin Lizzie, the "pretty cousin" to whom allusion has
+already been made as the original of Mrs. Browning's poem, "A Portrait."
+They were married in Paris at the English Embassy, and passed the summer
+on the Continent. Mrs. Browning's sister Henrietta (Mrs. Surtees Cook) was
+unable to come up to London, so that the hoped-for pleasure of seeing this
+brother and sister was denied her; but Miss Arabel Barrett was close at
+hand in the Wimpole Street home, and the sisters were much together. Mr.
+Barrett had never changed his mental attitude regarding the marriage of
+his daughter Elizabeth, nor that of any of his children, and while this
+was a constant and never-forgotten grief with Mrs. Browning, there seems
+no necessity for prolonged allusion to it. The matter can only be
+relegated to the realms of non-comprehension as the idiosyncrasy of an
+otherwise good man, of intelligence and much nobility of nature.
+
+The Brownings were invited to Knebworth, to visit Lord Lytton, but they
+were unable to avail themselves of the pleasure because of proof-sheets
+and contingent demands which only writers with books in press can
+understand. Proof-sheets are unquestionably endowed with some super-human
+power of volition, and invariably arrive at the psychological moment when,
+if their author were being married or buried, the ceremony would have to
+be postponed until they were corrected. But the poets were not without
+pleasant interludes, either; as when Tennyson came from the Isle of Wight
+to London for three or four days, two of which he passed with the
+Brownings. He "dined, smoked, and opened his heart" to them; and concluded
+this memorable visit at the witching hour of half-past two in the morning,
+after reading "Maud" aloud the evening before from the proof-sheets. The
+date of this event is established by an inscription affixed to the back of
+a pen-and-ink sketch of Tennyson, made on that night by Dante Gabriel
+Rossetti, and which is now in the possession of Robert Barrett Browning.
+This inscription, written by Robert Browning, reads: "Tennyson read his
+poem 'Maud' to E. B. B., R. B., Arabel, and Rossetti, on the evening of
+Sept. 27th, 1855, at 13, Dorset Street. Rossetti made this sketch of
+Tennyson, as he sat, reading, on one end of the sofa, E. B. B. being on
+the other end." And this is signed, "R. B. March 6th, 1874 ... 19, Warwick
+Crescent." As the date is Mrs. Browning's birthday, it is easy to realize
+how, in that March of 1874, he was recalling tender and beloved memories.
+On the drawing itself Mrs. Browning had, at the time of the reading,
+copied the first two lines of "Maud." Tennyson replied to a question from
+William Sharp, who in 1882 wrote to the Laureate to ask about this night,
+that he had "not the slightest recollection" of Rossetti's presence; but
+the inscription on the picture establishes the fact. William Michael
+Rossetti was also one of the group, and a record that he made quite
+supports the fact of Tennyson's unconsciousness of his brother's presence,
+for he says: "So far as I remember the Poet-Laureate neither saw what my
+brother was doing nor knew of it afterward." And as if every one of this
+gifted group present that night left on record some impression, Dante
+Gabriel Rossetti has noted that, after Tennyson's reading, Browning read
+his "Fra Lippo Lippi," and "with as much sprightly variation as there was
+in Tennyson of sustained continuity." In a letter to Allingham, Rossetti
+also alluded to this night, and infused a mild reproach to Mrs. Browning
+in that her attention was diverted by "two not very exciting ladies"; and
+in a letter to Mrs. Tennyson, Mrs. Browning speaks of being "interrupted
+by some women friends whom I loved, but yet could not help wishing a
+little further just then, that I might sit in the smoke, and listen to the
+talk," after the reading. So, from putting together, mosaic fashion, all
+the allusions made by the cloud of witnesses, the reader constructs a
+rather accurate picture of that night of the gods. Mrs. Browning, who "was
+born to poet-uses," like the suitor of her own "Lady Geraldine," was in a
+rapture of pleasure that evening, and of "Maud" she wrote: "The close is
+magnificent, full of power, and there are beautiful, thrilling lines all
+through. If I had a heart to spare, the Laureate would have won mine."
+Tennyson's voice she found "like an organ, music rather than speech," and
+she was "captivated" by his _naïveté_, as he stopped every now and then
+to say, "There's a wonderful touch!" Mrs. Browning writes to Mrs. Tennyson
+of "the deep pleasure we had in Mr. Tennyson's visit to us." She adds:
+
+    "He didn't come back, as he said he would, to teach me the 'Brook'
+    (which I persist, nevertheless, in fancying I understand a little),
+    but he did so much and left such a voice (both him 'and a voice!')
+    crying out 'Maud' to us, and helping the effect of the poem by the
+    personality, that it's an increase of joy and life to us ever."
+
+
+[Illustration: THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN, FILIPPO LIPPI.
+
+IN THE ACCADEMIA DI BELLE ARTI, FLORENCE.
+
+  "_Ringed by a bowery, flowery angel-brood,_
+  _Lilies and vestments and white faces...._"
+
+Fra Lippo Lippi]
+
+
+Deciding to pass the ensuing winter in Paris, the Brownings found
+themselves anxious to make the change, that they might feel settled for
+the time, as she needed entire freedom from demands that she might proceed
+with her "Aurora Leigh." He had conceived the idea of revising and
+recasting "Sordello." They passed an evening with Ruskin, however, and
+presented "young Leighton" to him. They met Carlyle at Forster's, finding
+him "in great force"--of denunciations. They met Kinglake, and were at the
+Proctors, and of the young poet, Anne Adelaide Proctor, Mrs. Browning
+says, "How I like Adelaide's face!" Mrs. Sartoris and Mrs. Kemble were
+briefly in London, and Kenyon, the beloved friend, vanished to the Isle of
+Wight. To Penini's great delight, Wilson, the maid, married a Florentine,
+one Ferdinando Romagnoli, who captivated the boy by his talk of Florence,
+and Penini caught up his pretty Italian enthusiasms, and discoursed of
+Florentine skies, and the glories of the Cascine, to any one whom he could
+waylay.
+
+In Paris they first established themselves in the Rue de Grenelle, in the
+old Faubourg San Germain, a location they soon exchanged for a more
+comfortable apartment in the Rue de Colisée, just off the Champs Élysées.
+Here they renewed their intercourse with Lady Elgin (now an invalid) and
+with her daughter, Lady Augusta Bruce, Madame Mohl, and with other
+friends. Mrs. Browning was absorbed in her great poem, which she was able
+to complete, however, only after their return to London the next June, and
+never did an important literary work proceed with less visible craft. She
+lay on her sofa, half supported by cushions, writing with pencil on little
+scraps of paper, which she would slip under the pillows if any chance
+visitor came in. "Elizabeth is lying on the sofa, writing like a spirit,"
+Browning wrote to Harriet Hosmer. To Mrs. Browning Ruskin wrote, praising
+her husband's poems, which gratified her deeply, and she replied, in part,
+that when he wrote to praise her poems, of course she had to bear it. "I
+couldn't turn around and say, 'Well, and why don't you praise him, who is
+worth twenty of me?' One's forced," she continued, "to be rather decent
+and modest for one's husband as well as for one's self, even if it's
+harder. I couldn't pull at your coat to read 'Pippa Passes,' for
+instance.... But you have put him on your shelf, so we have both taken
+courage to send you his new volumes, 'Men and Women,'... that you may
+accept them as a sign of the esteem and admiration of both of us." Mrs.
+Browning considered these poems beyond any of his previous work, save
+"Paracelsus," but there is no visible record left of what she must have
+felt regarding that tender and exquisite dedication to her, that "One Word
+More ... To E. B. B.," which must have been to her
+
+  "The heart's sweet Scripture to be read at night."
+
+These lines are, indeed, a fitting companion-piece to her "Sonnets from
+the Portuguese." For all these poems, his "fifty men and women," were for
+her,--his "moon of poets."
+
+  "There they are, my fifty men and women
+  Naming me the fifty poems finished!
+  Take them, Love, the book and me together;
+  Where the heart lies, let the brain lie also.
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  I shall never, in the years remaining,
+  Paint you pictures, no, nor carve you statues,
+  Make you music that should all-express me;
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Verse and nothing else have I to give you.
+  Other heights in other lives, God willing;
+  All the gifts from all the heights, your own, Love!"
+
+So he wrote to his "one angel,--borne, see, on my bosom!" For her alone
+were the
+
+  "Silent, silver lights and darks undreamed of,"
+
+and while there was one side to face the world with, he thanked God that
+there was another,--
+
+  "One to show a woman when he loves her!"
+
+
+It was Rossetti, however, who was the true interpreter of Browning to
+Ruskin,--for if it requires a god to recognize a god, so likewise in
+poetic recognitions. To Rossetti the poems comprised in "Men and Women"
+were the "elixir of life." The moving drama of Browning's poetry
+fascinated him. Some years before he had chanced upon "Pauline" in the
+British Museum, and being unable to procure the book, had copied every
+line of it. The "high seriousness" which Aristotle claims to be one of the
+high virtues of poetry, impressed Rossetti in Browning. What a drama of
+the soul universal was revealed in that "fifty men and women"! What art,
+what music, coming down the ages, from Italy, from Germany, and what
+pictures from dim frescoes, and long-forgotten paintings hid in niche and
+cloister, were interpreted in these poems! How one follows "poor brother
+Lippo" in his escapade:
+
+           "... I could not paint all night--
+  Ouf! I leaned out of window for fresh air.
+  There came a hurry of feet and little feet,
+  A sweep of lute-strings, laughs, and whifts of song,--
+  _Flower o' the broom,_
+  _Take away love, and our earth is a tomb!_
+  _Flower o' the quince,_
+  _I let Lisa go, and what good in life since?_"
+
+And in "Andrea del Sarto" what passionate pathos of an ideal missed!
+
+  "But all the play, the insight and the stretch--
+  Out of me, out of me! And wherefore out?
+  Had you enjoined them on me, given me soul,
+  We might have risen to Rafael, I and you!
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Had you ... but brought a mind!
+  Some women do so. Had the mouth there urged
+  'God and the glory! never care for gain.
+  The present by the future, what is that?
+  Live for fame, side by side with Agnolo!
+  Rafael is waiting; up to God, all three!'
+  I might have done it for you...."
+
+And that exquisite idyl of "the love of wedded souls" in "By the
+Fire-side." It requires no diviner to discover from whose image he drew
+the line,
+
+  "My perfect wife, my Leonor."
+
+How Browning's art fused poetic truth and poetic beauty in all these
+poems, vital with keen and shrewd observation, deep with significance, and
+pervaded by the perpetual recognition of a higher range of achievements
+than are realized on earth.
+
+  "A man's grasp should exceed his reach,
+  Or what's a heaven for?"
+
+In all these poems can be traced the magic of Italy and happiness. (Are
+the two more than half synonymous?) The perfect sympathy, the delicate
+divination and intuitive comprehension with which Browning was surrounded
+by his wife, were the supreme source of the stimulus and development of
+his powers as a poet.
+
+
+[Illustration: ANDREA DEL SARTO. PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AND HIS WIFE.
+
+IN THE PITTI GALLERY, FLORENCE.
+
+"_You turn your face, but does it bring your heart?_"
+
+Andrea del Sarto.]
+
+
+The Parisian winter was full of movement and interest. No
+twentieth-century prophet had then arisen to instruct the populace how to
+live on twenty-four hours a day, but the Brownings captured what time they
+could rescue from the devouring elements, rose early, breakfasted at nine,
+and gave the next hour and a half to Penini's lessons,--"the darling,
+idle, distracted child," who was "blossoming like a rose" all this time;
+who "learned everything by magnetism," and, however "idle," was still able
+in seven weeks to read French "quite surprisingly." Mrs. Browning had
+already finished and transcribed some six thousand lines (making five
+books) of "Aurora Leigh "; but she planned at least two more books to
+complete the poem, which must needs be ready by June; and when, by the
+author's calendar, it is February, by some necromancy June is apt to come
+in the next morning. The Brownings made it an invariable rule to receive
+no visitors till after four, but the days had still a trick of vanishing
+like the fleet angel who departs before he leaves his blessing. At all
+events, the last days of May came before "Aurora Leigh" was completed, and
+its author half despairingly realized that two weeks more were needed for
+the transcription of her little slips to the pages ready for the press.
+
+Meantime Browning had occupied himself for a time in an attempt to revise
+"Sordello," an effort soon abandoned, as he saw that, for good or ill, the
+work must stand as first written.
+
+Madame Mohl's "evenings" continued to attract Browning, where he met a
+most congenial and brilliant circle, and while his wife was unable to
+accompany him to these mild festivities, she insisted that he should avail
+himself of these opportunities for intercourse with French society. With
+Lady Monson he went to see Ristori in "Medea," finding her great, but
+not, in his impression, surpassing Rachel. Monckton Milnes comes over to
+Paris, and a Frenchman of letters gives a dinner for him, at which
+Browning meets George Sand and Cavour.
+
+The success of "Men and Women" was by this time assured. Browning stood in
+the full light of recognition on both sides the ocean. For America--or
+rather, perhaps, one should say, Boston, for American recognition focused
+in Boston (which was then, at all events, incontestably the center of all
+"sweetness and light")--discerned the greatness of Robert Browning as
+swiftly as any transatlantic dwellers on the watch-tower.
+
+Rossetti, who from the days that he copied "Pauline" in the British Museum
+Library, not knowing the author, was an ardent admirer of Browning, found
+himself in Paris, and he and Browning passed long mornings in the Louvre.
+The painter declared that Browning's knowledge of early Italian art was
+beyond that of any one whom he had met, Ruskin not excepted.
+
+Ruskin was a standard of artistic measurement in those days to a degree
+hardly conceivable now; not that much of his judgment does not stand the
+test of time, but that authoritative criticism has so many embodiments.
+Mrs. Browning, to whom Ruskin was one of the nearest of her circle,
+considered him a critic who was half a poet as well, and her clear insight
+discerned what is now universally recognized, that he was "encumbered by a
+burning imagination." She told him that he was apt to light up any object
+he looked upon, "just as we, when we carried torches into the Vatican,
+were not clear as to how much we brought to that wonderful Demosthenes,
+folding the marble round him in its thousand folds," and questioned as to
+where was the dividing line between the sculptor and the torch-bearer.
+This fairly clairvoyant insight of Mrs. Browning into character, the
+ability to discern defects as well as virtues where she loved, and to
+love where she discerned defects, is still further illustrated by a letter
+of hers to Ruskin on the death of Miss Mitford. "But no, her 'judgment'
+was not 'unerring,'" wrote Mrs. Browning. "She was too intensely
+sympathetic not to err often ... if she loved a person it was enough....
+And yet ... her judgment could be fine and discriminating, especially upon
+subjects connected with life and society and manners."
+
+Again, to a friend who had met a great bereavement she also wrote in these
+Paris days:
+
+    "We get knowledge in losing what we hoped for, and liberty by losing
+    what we love. This world is a fragment, or, rather, a segment, and it
+    will be rounded presently. Not to doubt that is the greatest blessing
+    it gives now. The common impression of death is as false as it is
+    absurd. A mere change of circumstances,--what more? And how near these
+    spirits are, how conscious of us, how full of active energy, of tender
+    reminiscence and interest in us? Who shall dare to doubt? For myself,
+    I do not doubt at all."
+
+
+In that latest collection of Browning's poems, no one excited more
+discussion at the time than "The Statue and the Bust." There being then no
+Browning Societies to authoritatively decide the poet's real meaning on
+any disputed point, the controversy assumed formidable proportions. Did
+Browning mean this poem to be an _apologia_ for illegal love? was asked
+with bated breath.
+
+The statue of Fernandino di Medici, in the Piazza dell' Annunziata, in
+Florence,--that magnificent equestrian group by Giovanni da Bologna,--is
+one of the first monuments that the visitor who has a fancy for tracing
+out poetic legends fares forth to see. As an example of plastic art,
+alone, it is well worth a pilgrimage; but as touched by the magic of the
+poet's art, it is magnetic with life. Dating back to 1608, it was left for
+Robert Browning to invest it with immortality.
+
+  "There's a palace in Florence, the world knows well
+  And a statue watches it from the square."
+
+
+In the poem Mr. Browning alludes to the cornice, "where now is the empty
+shrine"; but his son believes that there never was any bust in this niche,
+the bust being simply the poet's creation. The statue of the Grand Duke is
+remarkable enough to inspire any story; and the Florentine noble may well
+take pride in the manner that "John of Douay" has presented him, if he
+still "contrives" to see it, and still "laughs in his tomb" at the
+perpetual pilgrimage that is made to the scene of the legend, as well as
+to the royal Villa Petraja, also immortalized in Browning's poem.
+
+June came, the closing books of "Aurora Leigh" had been written, and under
+the roof of her dear friend and cousin, Kenyon, who had begged the
+Brownings to accept the loan of his house in Devonshire Place, the last
+pages were transcribed, and the dedication made to the generous friend who
+was the appointed good angel of their lives. They were saddened by
+Kenyon's illness, which imprisoned him for that summer on the Isle of
+Wight, and after seeing "Aurora Leigh" through the press, they passed a
+little time with him at Cowes, and also visited Mrs. Browning's sister
+Henrietta (Mrs. Surtees Cook), before setting out for Italy. No one in
+London missed them more than Dante Gabriel Rossetti. "With them has gone
+one of my delights," he said; "an evening resort where I never felt
+unhappy."
+
+
+[Illustration: EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF FERDINANDO DE' MEDICI,
+
+BY GIOVANNI DA BOLOGNA.
+
+IN THE PIAZZA DELL' ANNUNZIATA, FLORENCE.
+
+  "_There's a palace in Florence the world knows well,_
+  _And a statue watches it from the square._"
+
+  The Ring and the Book.]
+
+
+The success of "Aurora Leigh" was immediate, a second edition being called
+for within a fortnight, and edition after edition followed. This work, of
+which, twelve years before, she had a dim foreshadowing, as of a novel in
+verse, has the twofold interest of a great dramatic poem and of a
+philosophic commentary on art and life. To estimate it only as a social
+treatise is to recognize but one element in its kaleidoscopic interest.
+Yet the narrative, it must be confessed, is fantastic and unreal. When
+the conception of the work first dawned upon her, she said she preferred
+making her story to choosing that of any legend, for the theme; but the
+plot is its one defect, and is only saved from being a serious defect by
+the richness and splendor of thought with which it is invested. The poem
+is to some degree a spiritual autobiography; its narrative part having no
+foundation in reality, but on this foundation she has recorded her highest
+convictions on the philosophy of life. Love, Art, Ethics, the Christianity
+of Christ,--all are here, in this almost inexhaustible mine of
+intellectual and spiritual wealth. It is a poem peculiarly calculated to
+kindle and inspire. What a passage is this:
+
+                            "... I can live
+  At least my soul's life, without alms from men,
+  And if it be in heaven instead of earth,
+  Let heaven look to it,--I am not afraid."
+
+A profound occult truth is embodied in the following:
+
+  "Whate'er our state we must have made it first;
+  And though the thing displease us,--aye, perhaps,
+  Displease us warrantably, never doubt
+  That other states, though possible once, and then
+  Rejected by the instinct of our lives,
+  If then adopted had displeased us more.
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  What we choose may not be good;
+  But that we choose it, proves it good for us."
+
+No Oriental savant could more forcibly present his doctrine of karma than
+has Mrs. Browning in these lines. Her recognition of the power of poetry
+is here expressed:
+
+
+  "And plant a poet's word even deep enough
+  In any man's breast, looking presently
+  For offshoots, you have done more for the man
+  Than if you dressed him in a broadcloth coat,
+  And warmed his Sunday pottage at your fire."
+
+Poetry was to her as serious a thing as life itself. "There has been no
+playing at skittles for me in either poetry, or life," she said; "I never
+mistook pleasure for the final cause of poetry; nor leisure, for the hour
+of the poet."
+
+In the success of "Aurora Leigh" she was herself surprised. Private
+letters from strangers filled with the warmest, even if sometimes
+indiscriminate, praises, rained down upon her, and she found the press
+"astonishing in its good will." That her "golden-hearted Robert" was "in
+ecstasies about it, far more than as if it had been a book of his own,"
+was apparently her most precious reward. Milsand, who she had fancied
+would hardly like this poem, wrote a critique of it for the _Revue_ which
+touched her with its "extraordinary kindness." He asked and obtained
+permission to translate it into French, and in a letter to Miss Sarianna
+Browning she speaks of her happiness that he should thus distinguish the
+poem.
+
+Soon after their arrival in Florence came the saddest of news, that of the
+death of John Kenyon, their beloved friend, whose last thoughtful kindness
+was to endow them with a legacy insuring to them that freedom from
+material care which is so indispensable to the best achievements in art.
+During his life he had given to them one hundred pounds a year, and in his
+will he left them ten thousand guineas,--the largest of the many legacies
+that his generous will contained.
+
+The carnival, always gay in Florence, was exceedingly so that year, and
+Penini, whose ardor for a blue domino was gratified, and who thought of
+nothing else for the time being, seemed to communicate his raptures, so
+that Browning proposed taking a box at the opera ball, and entertaining
+some invited friends with gallantina and champagne. Suddenly the air grew
+very mild, and he decided that his wife might and must go; she sent out
+hastily to buy a mask and domino (he had already a beautiful black silk
+one, which she later transmuted into a black silk gown for herself), and
+while her endurance and amusement kept her till two o'clock in the
+morning, the poet and his friends remained till after four. The Italian
+carnival, however wild and free it may be (and is), yet never degenerates
+into rudeness. The inborn delicacy and gentle refinement of the people
+render this impossible. Yet for the time being there is perfect social
+equality, and at this ball the Grand Duke and Wilson's husband,
+Ferdinando, were on terms of fellowship.
+
+In the early April of that spring the summer suddenly dawned upon lovely
+Florence like a transformation scene on a stage. The trees in the Cascine
+were all a "green mist." Everywhere was that ethereal enchantment of the
+Flower City, with her gleaming towers and domes, her encircling purple
+hills and picturesque streets. And how, indeed, could any one who has
+watched the loveliness of a Florentine springtime ever escape its haunting
+spell? The dweller in Italy may see a thousand things to desire,--better
+public privileges, more facilities for comfort, but the day comes when, if
+he has learned to love the Italian atmosphere so intensely that all the
+glories of earth could not begin to compensate for it, he would give every
+conceivable achievement of modern art and progress for one hour among
+those purple hills, for one hour with the sunset splendors over the
+towers, and the olive-crowned heights of Fiesole and Bellosguardo; or to
+hear again the impassioned strains of street singers ring out in pathetic
+intensity in the bewildering moonlight. _La Bella Firenze_, lying
+dream-enchanted among her amethyst hills, would draw her lover from the
+wilds of Siberia, for even one of those etherial evenings, when the stars
+blaze in a splendor over San Miniato, or one rose-crowned morning, when
+the golden sunshine gilds the tower of the old cathedral on Fiesole.
+
+In that spring Mrs. Stowe visited Florence, and the Brownings liked her
+and rejoiced that she had moved the world for good. To Mrs. Jameson Mrs.
+Browning wrote that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was a "sign of the times." She
+read Victor Hugo's "Contemplations," finding some of the personal poems
+"overcoming in their pathos"; they went to tea on the terrace at
+Bellosguardo, in April evenings, gazing over Florence veiled in
+transparent blue haze in the valley below.
+
+In this April Mrs. Browning's father died; she had never ceased to hope
+for reconciliation, and her sorrow was great, but, as usual, she was
+gently serene, "not despondingly calm," she said. Mrs. Jameson again came
+to Florence, and there were more teas on overhanging terraces, and
+enjoyments of the divine sunsets.
+
+In August they went with Miss Blagden, Mr. Lytton, and one or two others
+to again make _villeggiatura_ at Bagni di Lucca, where Mrs. Browning rose
+every morning at six to bathe in the rapid little mountain
+stream,--finding herself strengthened by this heroic practice,--and Penini
+flourished "like a rose possessed by a fairy."
+
+The succeeding winter was passed in Florence, Mrs. Browning instructing
+her little son in German, and herself reveled in French and German
+romances. Her rest was always gained in lying on the sofa and reading
+novels; Browning, who cared little for fiction, found his relaxation in
+drawing. He taught Penini on the piano, and the boy read French, German,
+and Italian every day, and played in the open air under the very shadow of
+the Palazzo Pitti.
+
+
+[Illustration: VILLA PETRAJA, NEAR FLORENCE.
+
+  "_... Try if Petraja, cool and green._
+  _Cure last night's fault with this morning's flowers._"
+
+  The Statue and the Bust.]
+
+
+The Hawthornes, who had met the Brownings in London at a breakfast given
+by Lord Houghton, came up from Rome, and Mrs. Hawthorne declared that the
+grasp of Browning's hand "gives a new value to life." They passed an
+evening at Casa Guidi, and Mrs. Hawthorne recorded that in the corridor,
+as they entered, was a little boy who answered in the affirmative as to
+whether he were "Penini," and who "looked like a waif of poetry,
+lovelier still in the bright light of the drawing-room." Mr. Browning
+instantly appeared with his cordial welcome, leading them into the salon
+that looked out on the terrace, filled with growing plants. From San
+Felice there came the chanting of music, and the flowers, the melody, the
+stars hanging low in the sky, all ablaze over San Miniato, with the poet
+and his child, all conspired to entrance the sensitive and poetic Mrs.
+Hawthorne. Then Mrs. Browning came in, "delicate, like a spirit, the
+ethereal poet-wife, with a cloud of curls half concealing her face, and
+with the fairy fingers that gave a warm, human pressure,--a very
+embodiment of heart and intellect." Mrs. Hawthorne had brought her a
+branch of pink roses, which Mrs. Browning pinned on her black velvet gown.
+
+They were taken into the drawing-room, a lofty, spacious apartment where
+Gobelin tapestries, richly carved furniture, pictures, and _vertu_ all
+enchanted Mrs. Hawthorne, and they talked "on no very noteworthy topics,"
+Hawthorne afterward recorded, though he added that he wondered that the
+conversation of Browning should be so clear and so much to the purpose,
+considering that in his poetry one ran "into the high grass of obscure
+allusion." The poet Bryant and his daughter were present that evening, a
+little to the regret of Mrs. Hawthorne, and there were tea and
+strawberries, Mrs. Browning presiding at the tray, and Penini, "graceful
+as Ganymede," passing the cake.
+
+The Brownings left Florence soon after this evening. The summer of 1858
+was passed in Normandy, in company with Mr. Browning's father and his
+sister Sarianna, all of them occupying together a house on the shore of
+the Channel, near Havre. They confessed themselves in a heavenly state of
+mind, equally appreciative of the French people,--manners, cooking,
+cutlets, and costumes, all regarded with perpetual admiration. Penini,
+too, was by no means behind in his pretty, childish enthusiasms. He was
+now nine years of age, reading easily French and German, as well as the
+two languages, English and Italian--each of which was as much his native
+tongue as the other--and with much proficiency at the piano. Browning
+already played duets with his little son, while the happy mother looked
+smilingly on. Mrs. Browning was one who lived daily her real life. For
+there is much truth in the Oriental truism that our real life is that
+which we do _not_ live,--in our present environment, at least. She always
+gave of her best because she herself dwelt in the perpetual atmosphere of
+high thought. Full of glancing humor and playfulness of expression, never
+scorning homely conditions, she yet lived constantly in the realm of
+nobleness.
+
+  "Poets become such
+  By scorning nothing,"
+
+she has said.
+
+The following winter found them again in Rome, where Mrs. Browning was
+much occupied with Italian politics. Her two deepest convictions were
+faith in the honest purposes of Louis Napoleon, and her enthusiasm for
+Italian liberty and unity. In her poem, "A Tale of Villafranca," she
+expressed her convictions and feelings. One of their nearer friends in
+Rome was Massimo d'Azeglio, the Prime Minister of Piedmont from 1849 to
+1852, one of the purest of Italian patriots, who was full of hope for
+Italy. The English Minister Plenipotentiary to Rome at that time was Lord
+Odo Russell, and when the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) arrived
+in Rome, the Minister (later Lord Ampthill) invited (through Colonel
+Bruce) several gentlemen to meet him, Colonel Bruce said to Browning that
+he knew it "would gratify the Queen that the Prince should make the
+acquaintance of Mr. Browning." Mrs. Browning spoke of "the little prince"
+in one of her letters to Isa Blagden as "a gentle, refined boy," and she
+notes how Massimo d'Azeglio came to see them, and talked nobly, and
+confesses herself more proud of his visit "than of another personal
+distinction, though I don't pretend to have been insensible to that," she
+adds, evidently referring to the meeting with the young prince.
+
+Mrs. Browning's love for novels seemed to have been inherited by her son,
+for this winter he was reading an Italian translation of "Monte Cristo"
+with such enthusiasm as to resolve to devote his life to fiction. "Dear
+Mama," he gravely remarked, "for the future I mean to read novels. I shall
+read all Dumas's to begin."
+
+On their return to Florence in the spring, Mrs. Browning gives William
+Page a letter of introduction to Ruskin, commending Mr. Page "as a man
+earnest, simple and noble, who "has not been successful in life, and when
+I say life I include art, which is life to him. You will recognize in this
+name _Page_," she continues, "the painter of Robert's portrait which you
+praised for its Venetian color, and criticised in other respects," she
+concluded. And she desires Ruskin to know the "wonder and light and color
+and space and air" that Page had put into his "Venus Rising from the Sea,"
+which the Paris salon of that summer had refused on the ground of its
+nudity,--a scruple that certainly widely differentiates the Salon of 1858
+from that of 1911.
+
+Salvini, even then already recognized as a great artist, was playing in a
+theater in Florence that spring, and the Brownings saw with great
+enjoyment and admiration his impersonations of Hamlet and Othello.
+
+On a glowing June morning Browning was crossing the Piazza San Lorenzo,
+when the market-folk had all their curious wares of odds and ends spread
+about on tables. At one of these he chanced on "the square old yellow
+book" which held the story of the Franceschini tragedy, which the poet's
+art transmuted into his greatest poem, "The Ring and the Book." No other
+single work of Browning's can rival this in scope and power. It would seem
+as if he had, at the moment, almost a prescience of the incalculable value
+of this crumpled and dilapidated volume; as if he intuitively recognized
+what he afterward referred to as "the predestination." On his way homeward
+he opened the book;
+
+                "... through street and street,
+  At the Strozzi, at the Pillar, at the Bridge;
+  Till, by the time I stood at home again
+  In Casa Guidi by Felice Church,
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  I had mastered the contents, knew the whole truth."
+
+In this brief time he had comprehended the entire story of the trial and
+execution of Count Guido Franceschino, Nobleman of Arezzo, for the murder
+of his wife, Pompilia, and apparently much of the conception of his great
+work of future years, "The Ring and the Book," took possession of him at
+once. But it was like the seed that must germinate and grow. Little indeed
+did he dream that in this chance purchase he had been led to the material
+for the supreme achievement of his art.
+
+One evening before leaving Florence for Siena, where the Brownings had
+taken the Villa Alberti for the summer, they had Walter Savage Landor to
+tea, and also Miss Blagden and Kate Field, then a young girl, studying
+music in Florence, who was under Miss Blagden's charge. Just as the tea
+was placed on the table, Browning turned to his honored guest, and thanked
+him for his defense of old songs; and opening Landor's latest book, "Last
+Fruit," he read in a clear, vibrant voice from the "Idylls of Theocritus."
+The chivalrous deference touched the aged poet. "Ah, you are kind," said
+he; "you always find out the best bits in my books."
+
+
+[Illustration: CHURCH OF SAN MINIATO, NEAR FLORENCE.
+
+  "_Came she, our new crescent of a hair's breadth._
+  _Full she flared it, lamping Samminiato._"
+
+One Word More.]
+
+
+The loyal homage rendered by the younger poet, in all the glow of his
+power, to the "old master," was lovely to see. As will be recalled, Landor
+had been one of the first to recognize the genius of Browning when his
+youthful poem, "Paracelsus," appeared. Landor had then written to Southey:
+"God grant that Robert Browning live to be much greater, high as he now
+stands among most of the living."
+
+It was one noon soon after this evening that Landor came to Casa Guidi,
+desolate and distraught, declaring he had left his villa on the Fiesolean
+slope never to return, because of his domestic difficulties. The Brownings
+were about leaving for Siena and Mr. Browning decided to engage an
+apartment for the venerable poet, when the Storys, who were making
+_villeggiatura_ in the strange old medieval city, invited Landor to be
+their guest. The villa where the Storys were domiciled was near the
+Brownings, and Landor was much in both households. "He made us a long
+visit," wrote Mrs. Story, "and was our honored and cherished guest. His
+courtesy and high breeding never failed him." Landor would often be seen
+astir in the early dawn, sitting under the olive trees in the garden,
+writing Latin verses. To Kate Field, who had become a great favorite with
+the Brownings, Mr. Browning wrote with some bit of verse of Landor's:
+
+    SIENA, VILLA ALBERTI, July 18.
+
+    DEAR MISS FIELD:--I have only a minute to say that Mr. Landor wrote
+    these really pretty lines in your honor the other day,--you remember
+    on what circumstances they turn. I know somebody who is ready to
+    versify to double the extent at the same cost to you, and do his best,
+    too, and you also know.
+
+    Yours Affectionately Ever,
+
+    R. B.
+
+    The servant waits for this and stops the expansion of soul!
+
+    P. S. ... What do you mean by pretending that we are not the obliged,
+    the grateful people? Your stay had made us so happy, come and make us
+    happy again, says (or would say were she not asleep) my wife, and
+    yours also,--
+
+    R. B.
+
+
+Of Landor, while they were in Siena, Mrs. Browning wrote to a friend that
+Robert always said he owed more to him than any other contemporary, and
+that Landor's genius insured him the gratitude of all artists. In these
+idyllic days Mr. Story's young daughter, Edith, (now the Marchesa Peruzzi
+di Medici, of Florence,) had a birthday, which the poetic group all united
+to celebrate. In honor of the occasion Landor not only wrote a Latin poem
+for the charming girl, but he appeared in a wonderful flowered waistcoat,
+one that dated back to the days of Lady Blessington, to the amusement of
+all the group. From Isa Blagden, who remained in her villa on
+Bellosguardo, came almost daily letters to Mrs. Browning, who constantly
+gained strength in the life-giving air of Siena, where they looked afar
+over a panorama of purple hills, with scarlet sunsets flaming in the west,
+the wind blowing nearly every day, as now. The Cave of the Winds, as
+celebrated by Virgil, might well have been located in Siena.
+
+Mrs. Browning and Mrs. Story would go back and forth to visit each other,
+mounted on donkeys, their husbands walking beside, as they had done in the
+Arcadian days at Bagni di Lucca. Odo Russell passed two days with the
+Brownings on his way from Rome to London, to their great enjoyment.
+Landor's health and peace of mind became so far restored that he was able
+to "write awful Latin alcaics." Penini, happy in his great friends, the
+Story children, Julian, Waldo, and Edith, and hardly less so with the
+_contadini_, whom he helped to herd the sheep and drive in the
+grape-carts, galloped through lanes on his own pony, insisted on reading
+to his _contadini_ from the poems of Dall' Ongaro, and grew apace in
+happiness and stature. For two hours every day his father taught him
+music, and the lad already played Beethoven sonatas, and music of
+difficult execution from German composers.
+
+The Brownings and the Storys passed many evenings together, "sitting on
+the lawn under the ilexes and the cypresses, with tea and talk, until the
+moon had made the circuit of the quarter of the sky." Mrs. Browning's
+health grew better, and Story writes to Charles Eliot Norton that
+"Browning is in good spirits about her, and Pen is well, and as I write,"
+he continues, "I hear him laughing and playing with my boys and Edith on
+the terrace below."
+
+It was late in October before they returned to Florence, and then only for
+a sojourn of six weeks before going to Rome for the winter. The Siena
+summer had been a period of unalloyed delight to Mrs. Browning, whose
+health was much improved, and not the least of the happiness of both had
+been due to the congenial companionship of the Storys, and to their
+delicate courtesies, which Mrs. Browning wrote to Mrs. Jameson that she
+could never forget. Browning wrote to Mrs. Story saying to her that she
+surely did not need to be told how entirely they owed "the delightful
+summer" to her own and Mr. Story's kindness. "Ba is hardly so well," he
+adds, "as when she was let thrive in that dear old villa and the pleasant
+country it hardly shut out."
+
+Mrs. Browning's small book, the "Poems before Congress," only eight in
+all, was published in this early spring of 1860, and met with no cheering
+reception. She felt this keenly, but said, "If I were ambitious of any
+thing it would be to be wronged where, for instance, Cavour is wronged."
+With Mrs. Browning a political question was equally a moral question. Her
+devotion to Italy, and faith in the regeneration of the country, were
+vital matters to her. She was deeply touched by the American attitude
+toward her poem, "A Curse for a Nation," for the Americans, she noted,
+rendered thanks to the reprover of ill deeds, "understanding the pure love
+of the motive." These very "Poems before Congress" brought to her praises,
+and the offer of high prices as well, and of this nation she said it was
+generous.
+
+A letter from Robert Browning written to Kate Field, who was then in
+Florence with Miss Blagden, and which has never before been published, is
+as follows:
+
+    ROME, VIA DEL TRITONE, 28,
+
+    March 29th, 1860.
+
+    DEAR MISS FIELD,--Do you really care to have the little photograph?
+    Here it is with all my heart. I wonder I dare be so frank this
+    morning, however, for a note just rec'd from Isa mentions an instance
+    of your acuteness, that strikes me with a certain awe. "Kate," she
+    says, "persists that the 'Curse for a Nation' is for America, and not
+    England." You persist, do you? No doubt against the combined
+    intelligence of our friends who show such hunger and thirst for a new
+    poem of Ba's--and, when they get it, digest the same as you see.
+    "Write a nation's curse for me," quoth the antislavery society five
+    years ago, "and send it over the Western sea." "Not so," replied poor
+    little Ba, "for my heart is sore for my own lands' sins, which are
+    thus and thus,--what curse assign to another land when heavy for the
+    sins of mine?" "Write it for that very reason," rejoined Ba's cheerer,
+    "because thou hast strength to see and hate a foul thing done within
+    thy gate," and so, after a little more dallying, she wrote and sent
+    over the Western seas what all may read, but it appears only Kate
+    Field, out of all Florence, can understand. It seems incredible. How
+    did you find out, beside, the meaning of all these puzzling passages
+    which I quote in the exact words of the poem? In short, you are not
+    only the delightful Kate Field which I always knew you to be, but the
+    sole understander of Ba in all Florence. I can't get over it....
+
+    Browning, the husband, means to try increasingly and somewhat
+    intelligibly to explain to all his intimates at Florence, with the
+    sole exception of Kate Field; to whose comprehension he will rather
+    endeavor to rise, than to stoop, henceforth. And so, with true love
+    from Ba to Kate Field, and our united explanation to all other
+    friends, that the subject matter of the present letter is by no means
+    the annexation of Savoy and Nice, she will believe me,
+
+    Hers very faithfully
+
+    ROBERT BROWNING.
+
+
+To Kate Field Mrs. Browning wrote, the letter undated, but evidently about
+this time, apparently in reply to some request of Miss Field's to be
+permitted to write about them for publication:
+
+    MY DEAR KATE,--I can't put a seal on your lips when I know them to be
+    so brave and true. Take out your license, then, to name me as you
+    please, only remembering, dear, that even kind words are not always
+    best spoken. Here is the permission, then, to say nothing about your
+    friends except that they are your friends, which they will always be
+    glad to have said and believed. I had a letter from America to-day,
+    from somebody who, hearing I was in ill health, desired to inform me
+    that he wouldn't weep for me, were it not for Robert Browning and
+    Penini! No, don't repeat that. It was kindly meant, and you are
+    better, my dear Kate, and happier, and we are all thanking God for
+    Italy. Love us here a little, and believe that we all love and think
+    of you.
+
+    Yours ever affectionately,
+
+    E. B. B.
+
+
+The American appreciation of Mrs. Browning constantly increased, and
+editors offered her an hundred dollars each for any poem, long or short,
+that might pass through their publications on its way to final destiny.
+
+Theodore Parker had passed that winter in Rome, and Mrs. Browning felt
+that he was "high and noble." Early in May he left for Florence, where his
+death occurred before the return of the Brownings.
+
+The education of Penini during these months was conducted by an old Abbé,
+who was also the instructor of Mr. Story's only daughter, Edith, and the
+two often shared their lessons, the lad going to Palazzo Barberini to join
+Miss Edith in this pursuit of knowledge. Certain traditions of the
+venerable Abbé have drifted down the years, indicating that his breviary
+and meditations on ecclesiastical problems did not exclusively occupy his
+mind, for the present Marchesa Peruzzi has more than one laughing
+reminiscence of this saintly father, who at one time challenged his pupil
+to hop around the large table on one foot. The hilarity of the festivity
+was not lessened when the Reverendo himself joined in the frolic, his
+robes flapping around him, as they all contributed to the merriment. The
+Marchesa has many a dainty note written to her by Penini's mother. Once it
+is as Pen's amanuensis that she serves, praying the loan of a "'Family
+Robinson,' by Mayne Reid," to solace the boy in some indisposition. "I
+doubt the connection between Mayne Reid and Robinson," says Mrs. Browning,
+"but speak as I am bidden." And another note was to tell "Dearest Edith"
+that Pen's papa wanted him for his music, and that there were lessons,
+beside; and "thank dear Edith for her goodness," and "another day, with
+less obstacles." The intercourse between the Brownings and the Storys was
+always so full of mutual comprehension and perfect sympathy and delicate,
+lovely recognition on both sides, that no life of either the sculptor or
+the wedded poets could be presented that did not include these constant
+amenities of familiar, affectionate intercourse.
+
+Many English friends of the Brownings came and went that winter, and among
+others was Lady Annabella Nöel, a granddaughter of Lord Byron, and a great
+admirer of Mr. Browning. A new acquaintance of the Brownings was Lady
+Marion Alford, a daughter of the Earl of Northampton, "very eager about
+literature, and art, and Robert," laughed Mrs. Browning, and Lady Marion
+and "Hatty" (Miss Hosmer) were, it seems, mutually captivated.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE PALAZZO BARBERINI, VIA QUATTRO FONTANE, ROME.
+
+The home of William Wetmore Story and his family for nearly forty years.]
+
+
+Some of the English artists came to Rome, Burne-Jones and Val Prinsep
+among them, and they with Browning wandered about the classic byways of
+the city and drove to see the Coliseum by moonlight.
+
+In June the Brownings left Rome, by way of Orvieto and Chiusi. They
+crossed that dead, mystic Campagna that flows, like a sea, all around
+Rome--a sea of silence and mystery; with its splendid ruins of the old
+aqueducts and tombs, its vast stretches of space that were all aglow, in
+those June days, with scarlet poppies. They stopped one night at Viterbo,
+the little city made famous since those days by Richard Bagot's tragic
+novel, "Temptation," and where the convent is interesting from its
+associations with Vittoria Colonna, who in 1541 made here a retreat for
+meditation and prayer.
+
+In Orvieto they rested for a day and night, and Mrs. Browning was able to
+go with her husband into the marvelous cathedral, with its "jeweled and
+golden façade" and its aerial Gothic construction. Mr. Browning, with his
+little son, drove over to the wild, curious town of Bagnorgio, which,
+though near Orvieto, is very little known. But this was the birthplace of
+Giovanni da Fidenza, the "Seraphic Doctor," who was canonized as St.
+Buonaventura, from the exclamation of San Francesco, who, on awakening
+from a dream communion with Giovanni da Fidenza, exclaimed, "_O buona
+ventura!_" Dante introduces this saint into the _Divina Commedia_, as
+chanting the praises of San Domenico in Paradise:
+
+  "_Io san vita di Bonaventura_
+  _Du Bagnorgio, che ne grandi uffici,_
+  _Sempre posposi la sinistra cura._"
+
+Bagnorgio is, indeed, the heart of poetic legend and sacred story, but it
+is so inaccessible, perched on its high hill, with deep chasms, evidently
+the work of earthquakes, separating it from the route of travel, that from
+a distance it seems impossible that any conveyance save an airship could
+ever reach the town.
+
+By either route, through the Umbrian region, by way of Assisi and Perugia,
+or by way of Orvieto and Siena, the journey between Rome and Florence is
+as beautiful as a dream. The Brownings paused for one night's rest at Lake
+Thrasymene, the scenes of the battlefield of Hannibal and Flaminius, with
+the town on a height overlooking the lake. "Beautiful scenery, interesting
+pictures and tombs," said Mrs. Browning of this journey, "but a fatiguing
+experience." She confessed to not feeling as strong as she had the
+previous summer, but still they were planning their _villeggiatura_ in
+Siena, taking the same villa they had occupied the previous season, where
+Penini should keep tryst with the old Abbé, who was to come with the
+Storys and with his Latin.
+
+They found Landor well and fairly amenable to the new conditions of his
+life. Domiciled with Isa Blagden was Miss Frances Power Cobbe, who was
+drawn to Florence that spring largely to meet Theodore Parker, with whom
+she had long corresponded. Mr. and Mrs. Lewes (George Eliot) were in
+Florence that spring of 1860, the great novelist making her studies for
+"Romola." They were the guests of the Thomas Adolphus Trollopes.
+
+Landor, too, came frequently to take tea with Miss Blagden and Miss Cobbe
+on their terrace, and discuss art with Browning. Dall' Ongaro and Thomas
+Adolphus Trollope were frequently among the little coterie. His visits to
+Casa Guidi and his talks with Mrs. Browning were among the most treasured
+experiences of Mr. Trollope. "I was conscious, even then," he afterward
+wrote in his reminiscences of this lovely Florentine life, "of coming
+away from Casa Guidi a better man, with higher views and aims. The effect
+was not produced by any talk of the nature of preaching, but simply by the
+perception and appreciation of what Elizabeth Browning was: of the purity
+of the spiritual atmosphere in which she habitually dwelt."
+
+Miss Hosmer came, too, that spring, as the guest of Miss Blagden, and she
+often walked down the hill to breakfast with her friends in Casa Guidi.
+Browning, who was fond of an early walk, sometimes went out to meet her,
+and on one occasion they had an escapade which "Hatty" related afterward
+with great glee. It was on one of these morning encounters that Miss
+Hosmer confessed to the poet that the one longing of her soul was to ride
+behind Caretta, the donkey, and Browning replied that nothing could be
+easier, as Girolamo, Caretta's owner, was the purveyor of vegetables to
+Casa Guidi, and that they would appropriate his cart for a turn up Poggia
+Imperiale. "_Di gustibus non_," began Browning. "Better let go Latin and
+hold on to the cart," sagely advised the young sculptor. In the midst of
+their disasters from the surprising actions of Caretta, they met her
+owner. "_Dio mio_" exclaimed Girolamo, "it is Signor Browning. San
+Antonio!" Girolamo launched forth into an enumeration of all the
+diabolical powers possessed by Caretta, and called on all the saints to
+witness that she was a disgrace to nature. Meantime the poet, the
+sculptor, the vegetables, and the donkey were largely combined into one
+hopeless mass, and Browning's narration and re-enactment of the tragedy,
+after they reached Casa Guidi, threw Mrs. Browning into peals of laughter.
+
+Again the Brownings sought their favorite Siena, where Miss Blagden joined
+them, finding a rude stone villino, of two or three rooms only, the home
+of some _contadini_, within fifteen minutes' walk of Mrs. Browning, and
+taking it to be near her friend. But for the serious illness of Mrs.
+Browning's sister Henrietta (Mrs. Surtees Cook) the summer would have been
+all balm and sunshine. The Storys were very near, and Mr. Landor had been
+comfortably housed not far from his friends, who gave the aged scholar the
+companionship he best loved. Browning took long rides on horseback,
+exploring all the romantic regions around Siena, such rides that he might
+almost have exclaimed with his own hero, the Grand Duke Ferdinand,--
+
+  "For I ride--what should I do but ride?"
+
+
+Penini, too, galloped through the lanes on his pony, his curls flying in
+the wind, and read Latin with the old Abbé. The lessons under this genial
+tutor were again shared with Miss Edith Story, one of whose earliest
+childish recollections is of sitting on a low hassock, leaning against
+Mrs. Browning, while Penini sat on the other side, and his mother talked
+with both the children. Mr. Story's two sons, the future painter and
+sculptor respectively, were less interested at this time in canvas and
+clay than they were in their pranks and sports. The Storys and Brownings,
+Miss Blagden and Landor, all loaned each other their books and newspapers,
+and discussed the news and literature of the day. The poet was much
+occupied in modeling, and passed long mornings in Mr. Story's improvised
+studio, where he copied two busts, the "Young Augustus" and the "Psyche,"
+with notable success.
+
+In the October of that year both the Brownings and the Storys returned to
+Rome, the poets finding a new apartment in the Via Felice. Mrs. Browning's
+sister Henrietta died that autumn, and in her grief she said that one of
+the first things that did her good was a letter from Mrs. Stowe. She notes
+her feeling that "how mere a line it is to overstep between the living and
+the dead." Her spiritual insight never failed her, and of herself she
+said: "I wish to live just so long, and no longer, than to grow in the
+spirit."
+
+In the days of inevitable sadness after her sister's death, whatever the
+consolations and reassurances of faith and philosophy, Mrs. Browning wrote
+to a friend of the tender way in which her husband shielded her, and "for
+the rest," she said, "I ought to have comfort, for I believe that love, in
+its most human relations, is an eternal thing." She added: "One must live;
+and the only way is to look away from one's self into the larger and
+higher circle of life in which the merely personal grief or joy forgets
+itself."
+
+Penini and his friend, Miss Edith, continued their studies under the old
+Abbé; his mother heard him read a little German daily, and his father
+"sees to his music, and the getting up of arithmetic," noted Mrs.
+Browning. The lad rode on his pony over Monte Pincio, and occasionally
+cantered out on the Campagna with his father. But Mrs. Browning had come
+to know that her stay on earth was to be very brief, and to her dear Isa
+she wrote that for the first time she had pain in looking into her little
+son's face--"which you will understand," she adds, but to her husband she
+did not speak of this premonition. She urged him to go out into the great
+world, for Rome was socially resplendent that winter. Among other notable
+festivities there was a great ball given by Mrs. Hooker, where princes and
+cardinals were present, and where the old Roman custom of attending the
+princes of the church up and down the grand staircase with flaming torches
+was observed. The beautiful Princess Rospoli was a guest that night,
+appearing in the tri-color. Commenting on the Civil War that was
+threatening America, Mrs. Browning said she "believed the unity of the
+country should be asserted with a strong hand."
+
+Val Prinsep, in Rome that winter, was impressed by Mr. Browning into the
+long walks in which they both delighted, and they traversed Rome on both
+sides the Tiber. The poet was not writing regularly in those days, though
+his wife "gently wrangled" with him to give more attention to his art,
+and held before him the alluring example of the Laureate who shut himself
+up daily for prescribed work. Browning had "an enormous superfluity of
+vital energy," which he had to work off in long walks, in modeling, and in
+conversations. "I wanted his poems done this winter very much," said Mrs.
+Browning; "and here was a bright room with three windows consecrated to
+use.... There has been little poetry done since last winter." But in later
+years Browning became one of the most regular of workers, and considered
+that day lost on which he had not written at least some lines of poetry.
+At this time the poet was fascinated by his modeling. "Nothing but clay
+does he care for, poor, lost soul," laughed Mrs. Browning. Her "Hatty" ran
+in one day with a sketch of a charming design for a fountain for Lady
+Marion Alford. "The imagination is unfolding its wings in Hatty," said
+Mrs. Browning.
+
+In days when Mrs. Browning felt able to receive visitors, there were many
+to avail themselves of the privilege. On one day came Lady Juliana Knox,
+bringing Miss Sewell (Amy Herbert); and M. Carl Grun, a friend of the
+poet, Dall' Ongaro, came with a letter from the latter, who wished to
+translate into Italian some of the poems of Mrs. Browning. Lady Juliana
+had that day been presented to the Holy Father, and she related to Mrs.
+Browning how deeply touched she had been by his adding to the benediction
+he gave her, "_Priez pour le pape._"
+
+Penini had a choice diversion in that the Duchesse de Grammont, of the
+French Embassy, gave a "_matinée d'enfants_," to which he received a card,
+and went, resplendent in a crimson velvet blouse, and was presented to
+small Italian princes of the Colonna, the Doria, Piombiono, and others,
+and played leap-frog with his titled companions.
+
+Mrs. Browning reads with eager interest a long speech of their dear
+friend, Milsand, which filled seventeen columns of the _Moniteur_, a copy
+of which his French friend sent to Browning.
+
+The Brownings had planned to join the poet's father and sister in Paris
+that summer, but a severe attack of illness in which for a few days her
+life was despaired of made Mrs. Browning fear that she would be unable to
+take the journey. Characteristically, her only thought was for the others,
+never for herself, and she writes to Miss Browning how sad she is in the
+thought of her husband's not seeing his father, and "If it were possible
+for Robert to go with Pen," she continues, "he should, but he wouldn't go
+without me."
+
+When she had sufficiently recovered to start for Florence, they set out on
+June 4, resting each night on the way, and reaching Siena four days later,
+where they lingered. From there Mr. Browning wrote to the Storys that they
+had traveled through exquisite scenery, and that Ba had borne the journey
+fairly well. But on arriving in Florence and opening their apartment again
+in Casa Guidi, it was apparent that the poet had decided rightly that
+there was to be no attempt made to visit Paris. During these closing days
+of Mrs. Browning's stay on earth, her constant aim was "to keep quiet, and
+try not to give cause for trouble on my account, to be patient and live on
+God's daily bread from day to day."
+
+  "_O beauty of holiness,_
+  _Of self-forgetfulness, of lowliness!_"
+
+
+It is difficult to read unmoved her last words written to Miss Sarianna
+Browning. "Don't fancy, dear," she said, "that this is the fault of my
+will," and she adds:
+
+    "Robert always a little exaggerates the difficulties of traveling, and
+    there's no denying that I have less strength than is usual to me....
+    What does vex me is that the dearest nonno should not see his Peni
+    this year, and that you, dear, should be disappointed, _on my account
+    again_. That's hard on us all. We came home into a cloud here. I can
+    scarcely command voice or hand to name _Cavour_. That great soul,
+    which meditated and made Italy, has gone to the diviner country. If
+    tears or blood could have saved him to us, he should have had mine. I
+    feel yet as if I could scarcely comprehend the greatness of the
+    vacancy."
+
+
+For a week previous to her transition to that diviner world in which she
+always dwelt, even on earth, she was unable to leave her couch; but she
+smilingly assured them each day that she was better, and in the last
+afternoon she received a visit from her beloved Isa, to whom she spoke
+with somewhat of her old fire of generous enthusiasm of the new Premier,
+who was devoted to the ideals of Cavour, and in whose influence she saw
+renewed hope for Italy. The Storys were then at Leghorn, having left Rome
+soon after the departure of the Brownings, and they were hesitating
+between Switzerland for the summer, or going again to Siena, where they
+and the Brownings might be together. The poet had been intending to meet
+the Storys at Leghorn that night, but he felt that he could not leave his
+wife, though with no prescience of the impending change. She was weak, but
+they talked over their summer plans, decided they would soon go to Siena,
+and agreed that they would give up Casa Guidi that year, and take a villa
+in Florence, instead. They were endeavoring to secure an apartment in
+Palazzo Barberini for the winter, the Storys being most anxious that they
+should be thus near together, and Mrs. Browning discussed with him the
+furnishing of the rooms in case they decided upon the Palazzo. Only that
+morning Mr. Lytton had called, and while Mrs. Browning did not see him,
+her husband talked with him nearly all the morning. Late in the evening
+she seemed a little wandering, but soon she slept, waking again about
+four, when they talked together, and she seemed to almost pass into a
+state of ecstasy, expressing to him in the most ardent and tender words
+her love and her happiness. The glow of the luminous Florentine dawn
+brightened in the room, and with the words "It is beautiful!" she passed
+into that realm of life and light and loveliness in which she had always
+seemed to dwell.
+
+  "And half we deemed she needed not
+    The changing of her sphere,
+  To give to heaven a Shining One,
+    Who walked an angel here."
+
+
+[Illustration: THE ENGLISH CEMETERY, FLORENCE, IN WHICH MRS. BROWNING IS
+BURIED.]
+
+
+Curiously, Miss Blagden had not slept at all that night. After her return
+from her visit to Mrs. Browning the previous afternoon, "every trace of
+fatigue vanished," she wrote to a friend, "and all my faculties seemed
+singularly alert. I was unable to sleep, and sat writing letters till
+dawn, when a cabman came to tell me '_La Signora della Casa Guidi e
+morte!_'"
+
+The Storys came immediately from Leghorn, and Miss Blagden took Edith
+Story and Penini to her villa. It was touching to see his little friend's
+endeavor to comfort the motherless boy. Mr. and Mrs. Story stayed with
+Browning in the rooms where everything spoke of her presence: the table,
+strewn with her letters and books; her little chair, a deep armchair of
+dark green velvet, which her son now holds sacred among his treasures, was
+drawn by the table just as she had left it, and in her portfolio was a
+half-finished letter to Madame Mario, speaking of Cavour, and her noble
+aspirations for Italy.
+
+In the late afternoon of July 1, 1861, a group of English and American,
+with many Italian friends gathered about the little casket in the lovely
+cypress-shaded English cemetery of Florence, and as the sun was sinking
+below the purple hills it was tenderly laid away, while the amethyst
+mountains hid their faces in a misty veil.
+
+  "What would we give to our beloved?
+  The hero's heart to be unmoved,
+  The poet's star-tuned harp to sweep.
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  God strikes a silence through you all,
+  And giveth His beloved, sleep."
+
+
+Almost could the friends gathered there hear her poet-voice saying:
+
+  "And friends, dear friends, when it shall be
+  That this low breath is gone from me,
+  And round my bier ye come to weep,
+  Let One, most loving of you all,
+  Say 'Not a tear must o'er her fall!
+  He giveth His beloved, sleep.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+1861-1869
+
+  "Think, when our one soul understands
+    The great Word which makes all things new,
+  When earth breaks up and heaven expands,
+    How will the change strike me and you
+  In the house not made with hands?
+
+  "Oh, I must feel your brain prompt mine,
+    Your heart anticipate my heart,
+  You must be just before, in fine,
+    See and make me see, for your part,
+  New depths of the divine!"
+
+
+THE COMPLETED CYCLE--LETTERS TO FRIENDS--BROWNING'S DEVOTION TO HIS SON--
+    WARWICK CRESCENT--"DRAMATIS PERSONÆ"--LONDON LIFE--DEATH OF THE POET'S
+    FATHER--SARIANNA BROWNING--OXFORD HONORS THE POET--DEATH OF ARABEL
+    BARRETT--AUDIERNE--"THE RING AND THE BOOK."
+
+
+"The cycle is complete," said Browning to the Storys, as they all stood in
+those desolate rooms and gazed about. The salon was just as she had left
+it; the table covered with books and magazines, her little chair drawn up
+to it, the long windows open to the terrace, and the faint chant of nuns,
+"made for midsummer nights," in San Felice, on the air. "Here we came
+fifteen years ago," continued Mr. Browning; "here Ba wrote her poems for
+Italy; here Pen was born; here we used to walk up and down this terrace on
+summer evenings." The poet lingered over many tender reminiscences, and
+after the Storys had taken leave, he and his son yielded to the
+entreaties of Isa Blagden to stay with her in her villa on Bellosguardo
+during the time that he was preparing to leave Florence, which he never
+looked upon again.
+
+When all matters of detail were concluded, Miss Blagden, "perfect in all
+kindness," accompanied them to Paris, continuing her own journey to
+England, while Browning with his son, his father, and sister, proceeded to
+St. Enogat, near St. Malo, on the Normandy coast. Before Mrs. Browning's
+illness there had been a plan that all the Brownings and Mr. and Mrs. W.
+J. Stillman should pass the summer together at Fontainebleau.
+
+There was something about St. Enogat singularly restful to Browning, the
+sea, the solitude, the "unspoiled, fresh, and picturesque place," as he
+described it in a letter to Madame Du Quaire. The mystic enchantment of it
+wrought its spell, and Penini had his pony and was well and cheerful, and
+Browning realized too well that the change called death is but the passing
+through "the gates of new life," to be despairing in his sorrow. The
+spirit of one
+
+  "... who never turned his back, but marched breast forward,"
+
+breathes through all the letters that he wrote at this time to friends.
+"Don't fancy I am prostrated," he wrote to Leighton; "I have enough to do
+for myself and the boy, in carrying out her wishes." Somewhat later he
+expressed his wish that Mr. (later Sir Frederick) Leighton should design
+the memorial tomb, in that little Florence cemetery, for his wife; and the
+marble with only "E. B. B." inscribed on it, visited constantly by all
+travelers in Florence and rarely found without flowers, is the one Sir
+Frederick designed.
+
+
+[Illustration: TOMB OF ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING IN THE ENGLISH CEMETERY,
+FLORENCE
+
+Designed by Sir Frederick Leighton, R.A.]
+
+
+In a letter to his boyhood's friend, Miss Haworth, Browning alluded to the
+future, when Penini would so need the help of "the wisdom, the genius, the
+piety" of his mother; and the poet adds: "I have had everything, and
+shall not forget." In reply to a letter of sympathy from Kate Field, he
+wrote:
+
+    "DEAR FRIEND,--God bless you for all your kindness which I shall never
+    forget. I cannot write now except to say this, and beside, that I have
+    had great comfort from the beginning."
+
+
+In the early autumn Browning took his son to London. The parting of the
+ways had come, and already he dimly perceived that the future would not
+copy fair the past. There are "reincarnations," in all practical effect,
+that are realized in this life as well as, speculatively, hereafter; and
+his days of Italian terraces and oleander blooms, of enchanting hours on
+Bellosguardo, and lingerings in old palaces and galleries, and saunterings
+down narrow streets crowded with _contadini_,--these days were as entirely
+past as if he had been transported to another planet.
+
+  "Not death; we do not call it so,
+  Yet scarcely more with dying breath
+  Do we forego;
+  We pass an unseen line,
+  And lo! another zone."
+
+The sea and the sands and the sky prefigured themselves in those days to
+Browning as all indistinguishably blended in an unreal world, from which
+the past had receded and on which the Future had not yet dawned.
+
+  "Gray rocks and grayer sea,
+    And surf along the shore;
+  And in my heart a name
+    My lips shall speak no more."
+
+
+To Story he wrote with assurances of affection, but saying, "I can't speak
+about anything. I could, perhaps, if we were together, but to write
+freezes me." Miss Blagden, in London, had taken rooms in Upper Westbourne
+Terrace, and when in the late autumn Browning and his son went on to
+England, he took an apartment in Chichester Road, almost opposite the
+house where Miss Blagden was staying. But she had lived too long in
+enchanted Florence to be content elsewhere, and she soon returned to her
+villa on the heights of Bellosguardo, from which the view is one of the
+most beautiful in all Europe. Browning soon took the house, No. 19 Warwick
+Crescent, which for nearly all the rest of his life continued to be his
+home. Here he was near Mrs. Browning's sister, Arabel Barrett, of whom he
+was very fond, and whose love for her sister's little son was most
+grateful to them both. Mr. Browning had his old tapestries, pictures, and
+furniture of old Florentine carving, some of it black with age, sent on
+from Casa Guidi, and he proceeded to transform a prim London house into an
+interior of singular charm. He lined the staircase with Italian pictures;
+books overflowed in all the rooms, and the glimpse of water in the canal
+near reflected the green trees of the Crescent, giving the place a hint of
+sylvan Arcadias. There was the grand piano on which Penini practiced, and
+a tutor was engaged to prepare the lad for the university. The poet felt
+that this was the critical time to give his son "the English stamp," in
+"whatever it is good for," he added. But as a matter of fact the young
+Florentine had little affinity with English ways. He was the child of
+poets; a linguist from his infancy, an omnivorous reader, and with marked
+talent for art, distinguishing himself later in both painting and
+sculpture, but he had little inclination for the exact sciences.
+
+In his London home Browning was soon again launched on a tide of
+work,--the dearest of which was in preparing the "Last Poems" of his wife
+for publication. He gave it a dedication to "Grateful Florence, and
+Tommaseo, her spokesman." He was also preparing a new edition of his own
+works to be issued in three volumes. The tutor he had secured for his son
+was considered skillful in "grammatical niceties," which, he said, "was
+much more to my mind than to Pen's." But he, as well as the boy, was
+homesick for Italy, and he wrote to Story that his particular reward would
+be "just to go back to Italy, to Rome"; and he adds:
+
+    "Why should I not trust to you what I know you will keep to
+    yourselves, but which will certainly amuse you as nothing else I could
+    write is like to do? What good in our loving each other unless I do
+    such a thing? So, O Story, O Emelyn, (dare I say, for the solemnity's
+    sake?) and O Edie, the editorship has, under the circumstances, been
+    offered to me: me! I really take it as a compliment because I am, by
+    your indulgence, a bit of a poet, if you like, but a man of the world
+    and able editor hardly!"[8]
+
+The editorship in question was that of _Cornhill_, left vacant by the
+death of Thackeray.
+
+Browning was too great of spirit to sink into the recluse, and first
+beguiled into Rossetti's studio, he soon met Millais, and by degrees he
+responded again to friends and friendships, and life called to him with
+many voices. In the late summer of 1862 the poet and his son were at
+"green, pleasant little Cambo," and then at Biarritz. He was absorbed in
+Euripides; and the supreme work of his life, "The Ring and the Book," the
+Roman murder story, as he then called it, was constantly in his thought
+and beginning to take shape. The sudden and intense impression that the
+Franceschini tragedy had made on him, on first reading it, rushed back and
+held him as under a spell. But the "Dramatis Personæ" and "In a Balcony"
+were to be completed before the inauguration of this great work.
+
+For more than four years the thrilling tragedy had lain in his mind,
+impressing that subconscious realm of mental action where all great work
+in art acquires its creative vitality. It is said that episodes of crime
+had a great fascination for Browning, _père_, who would write out long
+imaginary conversations regarding the facts, representing various persons
+in discussion, the individual views of each being brought out. The analogy
+of this to the treatment of the Franceschini tragedy in his son's great
+poem is rather interesting to contemplate. With the poet it was less
+dramatic interest in the crime, _per se_, than it was that the
+complexities of crime afforded the basis from which to work out his
+central and controlling purpose, his abiding and profound conviction that
+life here is simply the experimental and preparatory stage for the life to
+come; that all its events, even its lapses from the right, its fall into
+terrible evil, are--
+
+  "Machinery just meant
+  To give thy soul its bent,"
+
+a part of the mechanism to "try the soul's stuff on"; that man lives in an
+environment of spiritual influences which act upon him in just that degree
+to which he can recognize and respond to them; and that he must sometimes
+learn the ineffable blessedness of the right through tragic experiences of
+the wrong. In the very realities of man's imperfection Browning sees his
+possibilities of
+
+  "Progress, man's distinctive work alone."
+
+When Browning asks:
+
+  "And what is our failure here but a triumph's evidence
+    For the fullness of the days?..."
+
+he condenses in these lines his philosophy of life.
+
+Many of the poems appearing in the "Dramatis Personæ" had already been
+written: "Gold Hair" and "James Lee's Wife" at Pornic, and others at green
+Cambo. In the splendor and power of "Abt Vogler," "Rabbi Ben Ezra," and
+"A Death in the Desert," the poet expressed a philosophy that again
+suggests his intuitive agreement with the Hegelian. "Rabbi Ben Ezra" holds
+in absolute solution the Vedanta philosophy. To the question as to what
+all this enigma of life means, the poet answers:
+
+  "Thence shall I pass, approved
+  A man, for aye removed
+  From the developed brute; a god though in the germ.
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  He fixed thee 'mid this dance
+  Of plastic circumstance,
+  This Present, thou, forsooth, would fain arrest."
+
+How keen the sense of humor and of the sharp contrasts of life in "Fra
+Lippo Lippi," and what power of character analysis. The intellectual vigor
+and the keen insight into the play of mental action in "Bishop Blougram's
+Apology"--a poem that occasioned great discussion on its appearance (from
+a real or fancied resemblance of the "Bishop" to Cardinal Wiseman)--are
+almost unsurpassed in poetic literature. Many of the poems in the
+"Dramatis Personæ" are aglow with the romance of life, as in the "Eurydice
+to Orpheus," and "A Face," which refers to Emily Patmore. There are studio
+traces as well in these, and in the "Deaf and Dumb," suggested by a group
+of Woolner. The crowning power of all is revealed in the noble faith and
+the exquisite tenderness of "Prospice," especially in those closing lines
+when all of fear and pain and darkness and cold,--
+
+  "Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain,
+      Then a light, then thy breast,
+  O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again,
+      And with God be the rest!"
+
+The references to his wife in this poem, in the enthralling "One Word
+More," and in the dedication to "The Ring and the Book," as well as those
+to be divined in his character drawing of "Pompilia," are incomparable in
+their impressiveness and beauty, and must live so long as poetry is
+enshrined in life. The vital drama, the splendor of movement, the color,
+the impassioned exaltation of feeling, the pictorial vividness that are in
+these poems grouped under "Dramatic Romances" and "Dramatis Personæ," give
+them claim to the first rank in the poet's creations. Curiously, during
+this period, the change in Browning's habits of work, which his wife used
+to urge upon him, seemed to gradually take possession of him, so that he
+came to count that day lost in which he had not written some lines of
+poetry. Did he, perchance in dreams, catch something of "the rustling of
+her vesture" that influenced his mind to the change? To Elizabeth Browning
+poetry was not only a serious calling, but its "own exceeding great
+reward," always.
+
+Another change came to Browning, which redeemed him from the growing
+tendency to become a recluse, and made him a familiar figure in the great
+world. He seemed to become aware that there was something morbid and
+unworthy in the avoidance of the world of men and women. Browning's
+divinely commissioned work had to do with life, in its most absolute
+actualities as well as its great spiritual realities, because the life
+eternal in its nature was the theme on which he played his poetic
+variations, and no revelation of human nature came amiss to him.
+
+He had already supervised the publication of Mrs. Browning's essay on "The
+Greek Christian Poets" and "The Book of the Poets," and "nothing," he
+said, "that ought to be published, shall be kept back." He had also lent
+Story considerable assistance in arranging with Blackwood for the serial
+publication of "Roba di Roma."
+
+For two or three summers Browning with his father, his sister, and his
+son, passed the summers at St. Marie, near Pornic, from where in the
+August of 1863 he wrote to Leighton that he was living on fruit and milk,
+and that each day he completed some work, read a little with Pen, and
+somewhat more by himself. St. Marie was a "wild little place" in Brittany,
+on the very edge of the sea, a hamlet of hardly more than a dozen houses,
+of which the Brownings had the privilege of occupying that of the mayor,
+whose chief attraction, apparently, was that, though bare, it was clean.
+The poet liked it all, and it was there that he wrote "In the Doorway" in
+"James Lee's Wife," with the sea, the field, and the fig-tree visible from
+his window.
+
+In the late summer the Brownings are all again at St. Marie in Brittany,
+and the poet writes to Isa Blagden that he supposes what she "calls fame
+within these four years" has come somewhat from his going about and
+showing himself alive, "but," he adds, "I was in London from the time that
+I published 'Paracelsus' till I ended the writing of plays with
+'Luria,'--and I used to go out then, and see far more of merely literary
+people, critics, etc., than I do now,--but what came of it?" If in the
+lines following there is a hint of sadness, who can blame him?
+
+During this summer he revised "Sordello" for re-publication, not, however,
+as he had once contemplated, making in it any significant changes. In the
+dedication to his friend Milsand, he incorporated so clear an exposition
+of his idea in the poem that this dedication will always be read with
+special interest. In London again the next winter, Browning wrote to Isa
+Blagden that he "felt comfort in doing the best he could with the object
+of his life,--poetry. I hope to do much more yet," he continued; "and that
+the flower of it will be put into _Her_ hand somehow."
+
+The London spring found the poet much engaged, taking his son to studios,
+and to the Royal Academy, to concerts, and for long walks, and in a letter
+to Kate Field not heretofore published is indicated something of the
+general trend of the days:
+
+    LONDON, 19, WARWICK CRESCENT,
+
+    UPPER WESTBOURNE TERRACE, May 5th, 1864.
+
+    DEAR KATE FIELD, (so let me call you, please, in regard to old times
+    when I might have done it, and did not,) I know well enough that there
+    is great stupidity in this way of mine, this putting off a thing
+    because I hope to compass some other thing, as here, for had you not
+    asked for some photographs which I supposed I could soon find time and
+    inclination to get, I should have thanked you at once; as I do now,
+    indeed, and with all my heart, but the review article is wavering and
+    indistinct in my mind now, and though it is inside a drawer of this
+    table where I write, I cannot bring myself to look at it again,--not
+    from a motive which is disparaging to you, as I am sure you
+    understand; the general impression is enough for me, also, if you care
+    in the least how I feel toward you. The boy has certainly the likeness
+    to which you refer, and an absolute sameness, almost, in feature as
+    well as in look, with certain old portraits of hers,--here, older and
+    younger; there is not a trace of me in him, thank God! I know that
+    dear, teasing Isa, and how she won't answer your questions, but
+    sometimes, for compensation, she tells you what you never asked for,
+    and though I always, or very often, ask about you, yet I think it may
+    have been in reply to curiosity about the price of Italian stock, that
+    she lately described to me a photograph of you, yourself, and how you
+    were: what? even that's over. And moreover, how you were your old self
+    with additions, which, to be sure, I don't require.
+
+    Give my true regard to your mother, and thank her for her goodness in
+    understanding me. But I write only to have a pleasant chat with you,
+    in a balcony, looking for fire-flies in the garden, wider between us
+    than the slanting Pitti façade, now that it's warm and Maylike in
+    Florence.
+
+    Always yours,
+
+    ROBERT BROWNING.
+
+
+[Illustration: KATE FIELD
+
+From a portrait painted by Elihu Vedder, Florence, 1860.]
+
+
+Mr. Browning had now begun to think of placing his son, who had passed his
+sixteenth birthday, in Oxford. In quest of this desire the poet sought the
+acquaintance of Dr. Jowett, afterward Master of Balliol College. This
+initiated a friendship between Browning and Jowett that lasted all the
+poet's life, and that has insured to Balliol many priceless treasures of
+association with both Robert and Elizabeth Browning. Up to that time
+Jowett had not been an admirer of Browning's poetry. But his keen interest
+in the theme then engaging Browning was aroused, and he wrote to a friend:
+
+    "I thought I was getting too old to make new friends, but I believe
+    that I have made one,--Mr. Browning, the poet, who has been staying
+    with me during the past few days. It is impossible to speak without
+    enthusiasm of his open, generous nature, and his great ability and
+    knowledge. I had no idea that there was a perfectly sensible poet in
+    the world, entirely free from vanity, jealousy, or any other
+    littleness, and thinking no more of himself than if he were an
+    ordinary man. His great energy is very remarkable, as is his
+    determination to make the most of the remainder of life. Of personal
+    objects he seems to have none, except the education of his son, in
+    which I hope in some degree to help him."[9]
+
+
+After returning to London, Browning writes to Tennyson, in thanks for a
+book received from the Laureate:[10]
+
+    19, WARWICK CRESCENT, W., Oct. 10, 1865.
+
+    MY DEAR TENNYSON,--When I came back last year from my holiday I found
+    a gift from you, a book; this time I find only the blue and gold thing
+    which, such as it is, I send you, you are to take from me. I could not
+    even put in what I pleased but I have said all about it in the word or
+    two of preface, as also that I beg leave to stick the bunch in your
+    buttonhole. May I beg that Mrs. Tennyson will kindly remember me?
+
+    Ever Affectionately Yours,
+
+    ROBERT BROWNING.
+
+Tennyson wrote in reply that the nosegay was very welcome. "I stick it in
+my buttonhole ... and feel ----'s cork heels added to my boots," he added.
+
+Volumes of selections from the poems of both Browning and his wife were
+now being demanded for the "Golden Treasury"; and to Miss Blagden Browning
+says further that he will certainly do the utmost to make the most of
+himself before he dies, "for one reason that I may help Pen the better."
+
+Browning complies with his publisher's request to prepare a new selection
+of his wife's poems. "How I have done it, I can hardly say," he noted,
+"but it is one dear delight that the work of her goes on more effectually
+than ever--her books are more and more read,"--and a new edition of her
+"Aurora Leigh" was exhausted within a few months.
+
+The winter was a very full and engaging one. On one evening he dined at
+the deanery of St. Paul's, Sir John Lubbock and Tennyson being also
+guests, but the Stanleys, who were invited, were not present. At another
+dinner the poets met, Tennyson recording: "Mr. Browning gave me an
+affectionate greeting after all these years," and Browning writing to a
+friend: "... I have enjoyed nothing so much as a dinner last week with
+Tennyson, who with his wife and one son is staying in town for a few
+weeks, and she is just what she was and always will be, very sweet and
+dear: he seems to me better than ever. I met him at a large party ... also
+at Carlyle's...."
+
+In May of 1866 Browning's father was in poor health, and on June 14 he
+died, at his home in Paris, his son having arrived three days before.
+Although nearly eighty-five years of age, the elder Browning had retained
+all his clearness of mind, and only just before he passed away he had
+responded to some question of his son regarding a disputed point in
+medieval history with "a regular book-full of notes and extracts." His son
+speaks of the aged man's "strange sweetness of soul," apparently a
+transmitted trait, for the poet shared it, and has left it in liberal
+heritage to his son, Robert Barrett Browning, the "Pen" of all these
+pages. Of his father the poet said:
+
+    "He was worthy of being Ba's father,--out of the whole world, only he,
+    so far as my experience goes. She loved him, and he said very
+    recently, while gazing at her portrait, that only that picture had put
+    into his head that there might be such a thing as the worship of the
+    images of saints."
+
+
+Miss Browning came henceforth to live with her brother, and for the
+remainder of his life she was his constant companion. She was a woman of
+delightful qualities,--of poise, cheerfulness, of great intelligence and
+of liberal culture. She was a very discriminating reader, and was
+peculiarly gifted with that sympathetic comprehension that makes an ideal
+companionship. Her presence now transformed the London house into a home.
+
+The next summer they passed at Le Croisic, where Browning wrote "Hervé
+Riel," in "the most delicious and peculiar old house," and he and his
+sister, both very fond of the open air, walked once to Guerande, the old
+capital of Bretagne, some nine miles from their house.
+
+Browning had received his first academic honors that summer, Oxford having
+conferred on him her degree of M.A. The next October Browning was made
+Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, a distinction that he greatly prized.
+
+During this summer Rev. Dr. Phillips Brooks (later Bishop of
+Massachusetts) was in London, and visited Browning once or twice. To a
+Boston friend who asked for his impressions of the great poet, Dr. Brooks
+wrote:[11]
+
+    "... I can't say anything now except that he is one of the nicest
+    people to pass an evening with in London. He is a clear-headed and
+    particularly clear-eyed man of the world, devoted to society, one of
+    the greatest diners-out in London, cordial and hearty, shakes your
+    hand as if he were really glad to see you.... As to his talk it wasn't
+    'Sordello,' and it wasn't as fine as 'Paracelsus,' but nobody ever
+    talked more nobly, truly, and cheerily than he. I went home and slept
+    after hearing him as one does after a fresh starlight walk with a good
+    cool breeze on his face."
+
+
+In 1863, on July 19, a little more than two years after the death of Mrs.
+Browning, Arabel Barrett had a dream, in which she was speaking with her
+sister Elizabeth, and asked, "When shall I be with you?" "Dearest, in five
+years," was the reply. She told this dream to Mr. Browning, who recorded
+it at the time. In June of 1868 Miss Barrett died, the time lacking one
+month only of being the five years. "Only a coincidence, but noticeable,"
+Mr. Browning wrote to Isa Blagden. But in the larger knowledge that we now
+have of the nature of life and the phenomena of sleep, that the ethereal
+body is temporarily released from the physical (sleep being the same as
+death, save that in the latter the magnetic cord is severed, and the
+separation is final)--in the light of this larger knowledge it is easy to
+realize that the two sisters actually met in the ethereal realm, and that
+the question was asked and answered according to Miss Barrett's
+impression. The event was sudden, its immediate cause being rheumatic
+affection of the heart, and she died in Browning's arms, as did his wife.
+Her companionship had been a great comfort to him, and Mr. Gosse notes
+that for many years after her death he could not bear to pass Delamere
+Terrace.
+
+The late summer of that year was devoted to traveling from Cannes about
+the coast, and they finally decided on Audierne for a sojourn. "Sarianna
+and I have just returned from a four hours' walk," he writes to a friend
+from this place; but here, as everywhere, he was haunted by Florentine
+memories, and by intense longings for his vanished paradise. To Isa
+Blagden he wrote:
+
+    "I feel as if I should immensely like to glide along for a summer day
+    through the streets and between the old stone walls, unseen come and
+    unheard go,--perhaps by some miracle I shall do so ... Oh, me! to find
+    myself some late sunshiny afternoon with my face turned toward
+    Florence...."
+
+
+While at Audierne, Browning put the final touches to the new six-volume
+edition of his works that was about to appear from the house of Smith,
+Elder, and Company, on the title-page of which he signs himself as M.A.,
+Honorary Fellow of Balliol College. Mr. Nettleship's volume of essays on
+Browning's poems was published that season, indicating a strong interest
+in the poet; and another very gratifying experience to him was the
+interest in his work manifested by the undergraduates of both Oxford and
+Cambridge. Undoubtedly the pleasant glow of this appreciation stimulated
+his energy in the great poem on which he was now definitely at work, "The
+Ring and the Book." Publishers were making him offers for its publication,
+"the R. B. who for six months once did not sell a single copy of his
+poems," he exclaimed in a letter to a friend, to whom he announced that he
+should "ask two hundred pounds for the sheets to America, and get it!"
+with an evident conviction that this was a high price for his work. The
+increasing recognition of the poet was further indicated by a request from
+Tauchnitz for the volumes of selections which Browning dedicated to the
+Laureate in these graceful words: "To Alfred Tennyson. In
+Poetry--illustrious and consummate; In Friendship--noble and sincere."
+
+The publication of "The Ring and the Book" was the great literary event of
+1869. Two numbers had appeared in the previous autumn, but when offered in
+its completeness the poem was found to embody the most remarkable
+interpretation of transfigured human life to be found in all the
+literature of poetry. The fame of the poet rose to splendor. This work was
+the inauguration of an epoch, of a period from which his work was to be
+read, studied, discussed, to a degree that would have been incredible to
+him, had any Cassandra of previous years lifted the veil of the future.
+The great reviews united in a very choral pean of praise; the
+_Fortnightly_, the _Quarterly_, the _Edinburgh Review_, the _Revue des
+Deux Mondes_, and others were practically unanimous in their recognition
+of a work which was at once felt to be the very epitome of the art and
+life of Robert Browning. The poem is, indeed, a vast treasure into which
+the poet poured all his searching, relentless analysis of character, and
+grasp of motive; all his compassion, his sensitive susceptibility to human
+emotion; all his gift of brilliant movement; all his heroic enthusiasms,
+and his power of luminous perception. But all this wealth of feeling and
+thought had been passed through the crucible of his critical creation; it
+had been fused and recast by the alchemy of genius. He transmuted fact
+into truth.
+
+  "Do you see this Ring?
+                         'T is Rome-work made to match
+  (By Castellani's imitative craft)
+  Etrurian circlets....
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  I fused my live soul and that inert stuff,
+  Before attempting smithcraft...."
+
+The "square old yellow book" which Browning had chanced upon in the
+market-place of San Lorenzo, in that June of 1860, was not a volume, but a
+"lawyer's file of documents and pamphlets." In relating how he found
+the book Browning says, in the poem:
+
+                             "... I found this book,
+  Gave a _lira_ for it, eightpence English just,
+  (Mark the predestination!) when a Hand,
+  Always above my shoulder, pushed me once,
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Across a Square in Florence, crammed with booths."
+
+
+He stepped out on the narrow terrace, built
+
+  "Over the street and opposite the church,
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Whence came the clear voice of the cloistered ones
+  Chanting a chant made for midsummer nights--"
+
+and making his own the story.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE PALAZZO RICCARDI, FLORENCE.
+
+ERECTED BY MICHELOZZO ABOUT 1435.
+
+  "_....Riccardi where they lived_
+  _His race........_"
+
+The Ring and the Book.]
+
+
+In 1908 Dr. Charles W. Hodell was enabled by the courtesy of Balliol
+College, to whom Browning left the "Old Yellow Book," to make a
+photographic reproduction of the original documents, to which Dr. Hodell
+added a complete and masterly translation, and a noble essay entitled "On
+the Making of a Great Poem," the most marvelous analysis and commentary on
+"The Ring and the Book" that has ever been produced. The photographed
+pages of the original documents, the translation, and this essay were
+published by the Carnegie Institution, in a large volume entitled "The Old
+Yellow Book." In his preface Professor Hodell records that he was drawn to
+the special study of this poem by Professor Hiram Corson, Litt.D., LL.D.,
+to whom he reverently refers as "my Master." Of "The Ring and the Book"
+Dr. Hodell says:
+
+    "In the wide range of the work of Robert Browning no single poem can
+    rival 'The Ring and the Book,' in scope and manifold power. The
+    subject had fallen to his hands at the very fulness of his maturity,
+    by 'predestination,' as it seemed to him. In the poem, as he planned
+    his treatment, there was opportunity for every phase of his peculiar
+    genius.... so that the completed masterpiece becomes the macrocosm of
+    his work.... Without doubt it may be held to be the greatest poetic
+    work, in a long poem, of the nineteenth century. It is a drama of
+    profound spiritual realities.
+
+      'So write a book shall mean beyond the facts,
+      Suffice the eye, and save the soul beside.'
+
+    Browning was the only important poet of the Victorian age who did not
+    draw upon the Morte d'Arthur legends; and the rich mythology of the
+    Greeks tempted him as little. The motive that always appealed to him
+    most was that of the activity of the human spirit, its power to
+    dominate all material barriers to transcend every temporary limit, by
+    the very power of its own energy."
+
+
+In his historic researches Professor Hodell found reason to believe that
+the Pope, in "The Ring and the Book," was Stephen VI, and not VII; and
+writing to Robert Barrett Browning to inquire regarding this point, he
+received from the poet's son the following interesting letter, which, by
+Dr. Hodell's generous courtesy, is permitted to appear in this book.
+
+    LA TORRE ALL' ANTELLA, FLORENCE, Jan. 6, 1904.
+
+    MY DEAR SIR,--I wish I were able to give you the information you ask
+    me for, but my father's books are in Venice, and I have not any here
+    touching on the matter to refer to.
+
+    If Pope Stephen was, as you say, the Sixth and not the Seventh, of
+    course the mistake is obvious and perhaps attributable to an
+    unconscious slip of the memory, which with my father was not at its
+    best in dates and figures. It is not likely that such an error should
+    have appeared in any old work, such as he would have consulted; and
+    certainly it was not caused by carelessness, for he was painstaking to
+    a degree, and had a proper horror of blundering, which is the word he
+    would have used. I can only account for such a mistake as this--which
+    he would have been the first to pronounce unpardonable--by his
+    absent-mindedness, his attention being at the moment absorbed by
+    something else. Absent-mindedness was one of his characteristics, over
+    instances of which he used to laugh most heartily. My father's
+    intention, I know, was to be scrupulously accurate about the facts in
+    this poem. I may tell you as an instance that, wishing to be sure that
+    there was moonlight on a particular night, he got a distinguished
+    mathematician to make the necessary calculation. The description of
+    the finding of the book is without doubt true in every detail. Indeed,
+    to this day the market at San Lorenzo is very much what it was then
+    and as I can remember it. Not long ago, I myself bought an old volume
+    there off a barrow.
+
+    The "Yellow Book" was probably picked up in June of 1860 before going
+    to Rome for the winter--the last my father passed in Italy. As it had
+    always been understood that the Book should be presented to Balliol, I
+    went soon after my father's death to stay a few days with Jowett, and
+    gave it to him.
+
+    In the portrait that hangs in Balliol Hall I painted my father as he
+    sat to me with the Book in his hands.
+
+    Nothing would have gratified him more than what you tell me about the
+    interest with which his works are studied in America, and I need not
+    say how much pleasure this gives me.
+
+    Believe me with many thanks for your kind letter,
+
+    Yours Very Sincerely,
+
+    R. BARRETT BROWNING.
+
+
+A very curious discovery was made in Rome, in the winter of 1900, by
+Signer Giorgi, the Librarian of the Royal Casanatense Library, in an
+ancient manuscript account of curious legal trials, among which were those
+of Beatrice Cenci, of Miguel de Molinos (in 1686), and of the trial and
+sentence of Guido Franceschini. The fact that taxes credulity in regard to
+this manuscript, of whose existence, even, no one in modern times had ever
+dreamed, is that the three points of view, as presented by Browning in
+the "Half Rome," "The Other Half Rome," and "Tertium Quid," are in accord
+with those given in this strange document, which for more than a century
+had lain undisturbed in the archives.
+
+In a little explanation regarding the significance of the closing lines of
+"The Ring and the Book," also kindly given by Robert Barrett Browning, it
+seems that his mother habitually wore a ring of Etruscan gold, wrought by
+Castellani, with the letters "A. E. I." on it; and that after her death
+the poet always wore it on his watch-chain, as does now his son. In the
+tablet placed on Casa Guidi to the memory of Mrs. Browning (the
+inscription of which was written by the Italian poet, Tommaseo) the source
+of the other allusion, of the linking Italy and England, is found. As the
+reader will recall, the lines run:
+
+  "And save the soul! If this intent save mine,--
+  If the rough ore be rounded to a ring,
+  Render all duty which good ring should do,
+  And, failing grace, succeed in guardianship,--
+  Might mine but lie outside thine, Lyric Love,
+  Thy rare gold ring of verse (the poet praised)
+  Linking our England to his Italy!"
+
+
+Dr. Corson especially notes Browning's opening invocation to his wife,
+praying her aid and benediction in the work he has undertaken. "This
+passage," says Dr. Corson, "has a remarkable movement, the unobtrusive but
+distinctly felt alliteration contributing to the effect."
+
+  "O lyric Love, half angel and half bird
+  And all a wonder and a wild desire,--
+  Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun,
+  Took sanctuary within the holier blue."
+
+
+That Browning could never have created the character of Pompilia, save for
+that all-enfolding influence of the character of his wife, all the
+greater critics of "The Ring and the Book" agree. To Dr. Corson, Browning
+said of her:
+
+    "I am not sorry, now, to have lived so long after she went away, but I
+    confess to you that all my types of women were beautiful and blessed
+    by my perfect knowledge of one woman's pure soul. Had I never known
+    Elizabeth, I never could have written 'The Ring and the Book.'"
+
+
+Of Pompilia Dr. Hodell also says:
+
+    "... But there is another influence in the creation of this ideal
+    character beside that of the Madonna, it was the Madonna of his home,
+    the mother of his own child, whose spiritual nature was as noteworthy
+    as her intellect. And before this spiritual nature the poet bowed in
+    humble reverence."
+
+
+Mrs. Orr, too, has written:
+
+    "Mrs. Browning's spiritual presence was more than a presiding memory
+    in the heart. I am convinced that it entered largely into the
+    conception of Pompilia.
+
+    "It takes, however, both the throbbing humanity of Balaustion and the
+    saintly glory of Pompilia to express fully the nature of Elizabeth
+    Barrett Browning as she appeared to her husband."
+
+
+Dr. Dowden, Brooke, Corson, Herford, Hodell, Chesterton, and other
+authoritative critics allude to their recognition of Mrs. Browning in the
+character of Pompilia; and no reader of this immortal masterpiece of
+poetic art can ever fail to find his pulses thrilling with those
+incomparable lines, spoken in her last hour on earth by Pompilia:
+
+  "O lover of my life, O soldier-saint,
+  No work begun shall ever pause for death!
+  Love will be helpful to me more and more
+  I' the coming course, the new path I must tread--
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Tell him that if I seem without him now,
+  That's the world's insight! Oh, he understands!
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  So let him wait God's instant men call years;
+  Meantime hold hard by truth and his great soul,
+  Do out the duty!..."
+
+
+In the entire range of Browning's heroines Pompilia is the most exalted
+and beautiful character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+1869-1880
+
+  "I am strong in the spirit, deep-thoughted, clear-eyed;
+  I could walk, step for step, with an angel beside,
+      On the heaven-heights of truth.
+      Oh, the soul keeps its youth
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "'Twixt the heavens and the earth _can_ a poet despond?
+          O Life, O Beyond,
+      Thou art strange, thou art sweet!"
+
+
+IN SCOTLAND WITH THE STORYS--BROWNING'S CONVERSATION--AN AMUSING
+    INCIDENT--WITH MILSAND AT ST. AUBIN'S--"RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP
+    COUNTRY"--ROBERT BARRETT BROWNING'S GIFT FOR ART--ALFRED DOMETT
+    ("WARING")--"BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE"--BROWNING AND TENNYSON--
+    "PACCHIAROTTO"--VISITS JOWETT AT OXFORD--DECLINES LORD RECTORSHIP OF
+    ST. ANDREWS--"LA SAISIAZ"--ITALY REVISITED--THE DREAM OF ASOLO--
+    "IVANOVITCH"--PRIDE IN HIS SON'S SUCCESS--"DRAMATIC IDYLLS."
+
+
+In the summer of 1869 the Storys, with their daughter, came from Rome and
+joined Browning with his sister and his son, for a holiday in Scotland.
+They passed some time at a little inn on Loch Achnault, where Lady Marian
+Alford also came, and there are still vivid reminiscences of picnic
+lunches on the heather, and of readings by the poet from "The Ring and the
+Book." Chapters from "Rob Roy" also contributed to the enjoyment of
+evenings when the three ladies of the party--Mrs. Story, Lady Marian, and
+the lovely young girl, Miss Edith Story--were glad to draw a little nearer
+to the blazing fire which, even in August, is not infrequently to be
+desired in Scotland. Lord Dufferin was also a friend of those days, and
+for the tower he had built at Clandeboye in the memory of his mother,
+Helen, Countess of Gifford, Browning wrote, soon after, his poem entitled
+"Helen's Tower." Mrs. Orr speaks of this poem as little known, and not
+included in his published works; but it is now to be found in all the
+complete editions of Browning. After this Arcadian sojourn Browning and
+his son, with Miss Browning, were the guests of Lady Ashburton at Loch
+Luichart Lodge.
+
+For two or three years after the publication of "The Ring and the Book,"
+Browning wrote little. The demands of friends and of an always enormous
+correspondence occupied much time; his son was growing into young manhood,
+and already manifesting his intense love of art, and his gifts as both
+painter and sculptor.
+
+Browning's conversation was always fascinating. It was full of glancing
+allusion, wit, sparkle, and with that constant undertone of significance
+that may be serious or gay, but which always lingers with a certain
+impressiveness to haunt the mind of the listener. Dr. Hiram Corson, who
+may perhaps be regarded as Browning's greatest interpreter, speaks of one
+of his visits to the poet, in London, where the conversation turned from
+Shelley to Shakespeare. "He spoke with regret of the strangely limited
+reading of the Plays, even by those who believe themselves habitual and
+devoted readers," says Dr. Corson.
+
+    "At luncheon," continues Dr. Corson, "his talk was, as usual with him,
+    rapid and off-hand. He gave but a _coup d'oeil_ to every subject
+    that came up. In all subsequent talks with him, I never got the
+    slightest impression from him of pride of intellect, though his was
+    certainly one of the subtlest and most comprehensive intellects of his
+    time. He was absolutely free from it; was saved from it by his
+    spiritual vitality. His intellectual and his spiritual nature jointly
+    operated. Nor did he ever show to me any pride of authorship; never
+    made any independent allusion to his poetry. One might have supposed
+    that his poetry, great and extensive as it was, was a parergon, a
+    by-work, with him.
+
+    "I have no recollection of any saying of his, such as might be
+    recorded for its wisdom or profundity. Never a brilliant thought
+    crystallized in a single sentence. His talk was especially
+    characterized by its cordiality and rapid flow. The 'member of
+    society' and the poet seemed to be quite distinct.
+
+    "One day when Mrs. Corson and I were lunching with him in Warwick
+    Crescent," said Dr. Corson, "he told us a most amusing incident. On
+    that morning Browning was particularly 'an embodied joy.' He told
+    several good stories, one of which showed that the enigmatical
+    character attributed to his poetry by some of his critics was to him a
+    good joke. I have no doubt he must have enjoyed the Douglas Jerrold
+    story, that Jerrold, in endeavoring to read 'Sordello,' thought he had
+    lost his mind.
+
+    "But to Browning's story. He said, 'I was visited by the Chinese
+    minister and his attachés, without having been previously informed of
+    their coming. Before they entered, I had noticed from my window a
+    crowd in the street, which had been attracted by the celestials in
+    their national rigs, who were just then getting out of their
+    carriages, I not knowing then what manner of visitors I was to have.
+    Soon the interpreter announced at the drawing-room door, "His
+    Excellency, the Chinese Minister and his attachés." As they entered,
+    the interpreter presented them, individually, first, of course, his
+    Excellency, the Minister, and then the rest in order of rank. It was
+    quite an impressive occasion. Recovering myself, I said to the
+    interpreter: "To what am I indebted for this great honor?" He replied:
+    "You are a distinguished poet in your country, and so is his
+    Excellency in his." We did obeisance to each other. I then asked the
+    character of his Excellency's poetry. The interpreter replied,
+    "Chiefly poetical enigmas." Grasping his Excellency's hand, I said, "I
+    salute you as a brother."'
+
+    "Browning told this story while walking up and down the room. When he
+    said, 'I salute you as a brother,' he made the motion of a most hearty
+    hand-shake."
+
+
+Mrs. Arthur Bronson, than whom Mr. Browning never had a more sympathetic
+and all-comprehending friend, said that if she tried to recall Robert
+Browning's words it was as though she had talked to a being apart from
+other men. "My feeling may seem exaggerated," she smiled, "but it was only
+natural, when considering my vivid sense of his moral and intellectual
+greatness. His talk was not abstruse and intricate, like some of his
+writings. Far from it. As a rule he seemed rather to avoid deep and
+serious subjects. There was no loss, for everything he chose to say was
+well said. A familiar story, grave or gay, when clothed with his words,
+and accentuated by his expressive gestures and the mobility of his
+countenance, had all the charm of novelty; while a comic anecdote from his
+lips sparkled with wit, born of his own keen sense of humor. I found in
+him that most rare combination of a powerful personality united to a
+nature tenderly sympathetic."
+
+Another who knew him well perpetrated the _mot_ that "Tennyson hides
+behind his laurels, and Browning behind the man of the world." Henry
+James, whose gift of subtle analysis was never more felicitously revealed
+than in his expressions about Browning, declared that the poet had two
+personalities: one, the man of the world, who walked abroad, talked, did
+his duty; the other, the Poet,--"an inscrutable personage,--who sat at
+home and knew, as well he might, in what quarters of that sphere to look
+for suitable company. The poet and the man of the world were disassociated
+in him as they can rarely elsewhere have been."
+
+For three or four summers after this sojourn in Scotland the Brownings
+were at St. Aubin, in Brittany, where they had a cottage "not two steps
+away" from that of his friend Milsand. In the early mornings Browning
+would be seen pacing the sands, reading from his little Greek copy of
+Homer; and in the late afternoons the two friends would stroll on the
+Normandy beach with their arms around each other's shoulders. They are
+described as very different in appearance,--Browning vigorous and buoyant,
+Milsand nervous, thin, reserved,--but akin in a certain delicate
+sensitiveness, a swift susceptibility to impressions. Of Browning Milsand
+said that what he really valued most was his kindness, his simple, open,
+radiant goodness. "All the chords of sympathy vibrated in his strong
+voice," added Milsand. The French critic was very fond of the poet's son,
+and in reference to him he once said: "The father has reason to be happy
+that in walking before he has opened a path for his son, instead of making
+him stumble." As has been seen, in Mrs. Browning's letters, she always
+shared her husband's enthusiasm for Milsand, and the latter had said that
+he felt in her "that shining superiority always concealing itself under
+her unconscious goodness and lovely simplicity."
+
+On Sundays at St. Aubin's, Browning frequently accompanied Milsand to the
+little chapel of Château-Blagny, for Protestant worshipers. From his
+cottage Browning could gaze across the bay to the lighthouse at Havre, and
+he "saw with a thrill" the spot where he once passed a summer with his
+wife.
+
+Italian recollections sometimes rose before his inner vision. To Isa
+Blagden, who had gone to Siena, he wrote that he could "see the fig-tree
+under which Ba sat, reading and writing, poor old Landor's oak opposite."
+
+Of Milsand he wrote to a friend: "I never knew or shall know his like
+among men," and to Milsand, who had assisted him in some proof-reading, he
+wrote acknowledging his "invaluable assistance," and said:
+
+    "The fact is, in the case of a writer with my peculiarities and
+    habits, somebody quite ignorant of what I may have meant to write, and
+    only occupied with what is really written, ought to supervise the
+    thing produced. I won't attempt to thank you, dearest friend.... The
+    poem will reach you in about a fortnight. I look forward with all
+    confidence and such delight to finding us all together again in the
+    autumn. All love to your wife and daughter. R. B."
+
+
+Milsand, writing of Browning in the _Revue_, revealed his high
+appreciation of the poet when he said: "Browning suggests a power even
+greater than his achievement. He speaks like a spirit who is able to do
+that which to past centuries has been almost impossible."
+
+It was St. Aubin that furnished Browning with material for his poem, "Red
+Cotton Night-cap Country," the title of which was suggested by Miss
+Thackeray (now Lady Ritchie) who had a cottage there one summer, near
+those of Browning and Milsand. Browning and his sister occupied one of the
+most primitive of cottages, but the location was beautiful, perched on the
+cliff of St. Aubin, and commanded a changeful panorama of sea and sky.
+"The sitting-room door opened to the garden and the sea beyond--a
+fresh-swept bare floor, a table, three straw chairs, one book upon the
+table,--the only book he had with him. The bedrooms were as bare as the
+sitting-room, but there was a little dumb piano standing in a corner, on
+which he used to practice in the early morning. Mr. Browning declared they
+were perfectly satisfied with their little house; that his brains,
+squeezed as dry as a sponge, were only ready for fresh air."[12] As all
+Browning readers will remember, "Red Cotton Night-cap Country" is
+dedicated to Miss Thackeray.
+
+In the succeeding autumn Browning passed some weeks at Fontainebleau,
+where he was absorbed in reading Æschylus, and in making an especial study
+of the great dramatist. It was perhaps at this time that he conceived the
+idea of translating the Agamemnon, which, he says in his preface, "was
+commanded of me by my venerated friend Thomas Carlyle, and rewarded it
+will be if I am permitted to dignify it by the prefatory insertion of his
+dear and noble name."
+
+
+[Illustration: BUST OF ROBERT BROWNING, BY HIS SON,
+
+ROBERT BARRETT BROWNING.
+
+In the possession of the sculptor at his villa near Florence.]
+
+
+Before the close of this year Browning had also complied with a request
+from Tauchnitz to prepare for publication a selection from the poems of
+Mrs. Browning. This Tauchnitz Edition of Mrs. Browning will always retain
+its interest as representing her husband's favorites among her poems. "The
+Rhyme of the Duchess May," with its artistic symmetry and exquisite
+execution, was of course included. This poem may be said to exhibit all
+Mrs. Browning's poetic characteristics.
+
+Encouraged by Millais, Robert Barrett Browning had seriously entered on
+the study of painting, his first master being M. Heyermans in Antwerp. In
+1875 Frederick Lehmann had expressed high appreciation of a work of the
+young artist, the study of a monk absorbed in reading a book,--a picture
+that he liked so well as subsequently to purchase it. Another picture by
+Barrett Browning was entitled "The Armorer," and found a place in the
+Royal Academy of that year, and was purchased by a Member of Parliament
+who was also something of a connoisseur in art. In this season was
+inaugurated the annual "private view" of the paintings of the poet's son,
+which were exhibited in a house in Queen's Gate Gardens and attracted much
+attention. In his son's success Browning took great pride and pleasure. On
+the sale of the picture to the M. P., Browning wrote to Millais:
+
+    19, WARWICK CRESCENT, May 10, 1878.
+
+    MY BELOVED MILLAIS,--You will be gladdened in the kind heart of you to
+    learn that Pen's picture has been bought by Mr. Fielder, a perfect
+    stranger to both of us. You know what your share has been in his
+    success, and it cannot but do a world of good to a young fellow whose
+    fault was never that of being insensible to an obligation.
+
+    Ever Affectionately Yours,
+
+    ROBERT BROWNING.[13]
+
+
+In 1871 Browning had been appointed Life Governor of the University of
+London, an honor that he particularly appreciated as indicating the
+interest of students in his poetry. In the late winter of 1872, after an
+absence of thirty years, Alfred Domett again appeared. He had vanished
+
+  "like a ghost at break of day,"
+
+and like a ghost he returned, calling at once on his friend in Warwick
+Crescent. A letter from Miss Browning to Domett explains itself:
+
+    19, WARWICK CRESCENT,
+
+    UPPER WESTBOURNE TERRACE, Feb. 1872.
+
+    MY DEAR MR. DOMETT,--My brother was so sorry to miss you yesterday; he
+    is a man of many engagements, and unfortunately is engaged every
+    evening next week, or I would ask you to join our family dinner as
+    soon as possible--but meanwhile, as he is impatient to see you, will
+    you be very kind and come to lunch with us on Monday at one o'clock?
+    We shall be delighted to meet you. If you cannot come on Monday, name
+    some other morning.
+
+    Always Yours Truly,
+
+    SARIANNA BROWNING.
+
+
+The old friendship between Browning and Domett was renewed with constant
+intercourse and interchange of delightful letters. Milsand was in the
+habit of passing a part of every spring with Browning in his home in
+Warwick Crescent, and with the arrival of Domett a warm and sincere
+friendship united all three.
+
+Once, in Scotland, as the guest of Ernest Benzon, when Browning missed
+part of a visit from Milsand, the poet said: "No words can express the
+love I have for Milsand, increasingly precious as he is." The Benzons were
+at that time in the hills above Loch Tummel, where Jowett was staying,
+Swinburne also with the Master of Balliol. Had there been a phonograph to
+register the conversation of such a trio as Jowett, Browning, and
+Swinburne, its records would be eagerly sought.
+
+A fragmentary record, indeed, remains in a note made by Edwin Harrison,
+who was with Jowett at this time. In his diary Mr. Harrison recorded:
+
+    "R. B. was in the neighborhood, staying at Little Milton, above Loch
+    Tummel, where he was perpetrating 'Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau' at the
+    rate of so many lines a day, neither more nor less. He walked over to
+    see Jowett one afternoon, very keen about a fanciful rendering he had
+    imagined for lines in the Alcestis. A few evenings later we met him
+    and his son at dinner at Altaine House, by the foot of the loch. You
+    may be sure that where Jowett and Browning were, the conversation was
+    animated and interesting."
+
+
+In "Balaustion's Adventure" the poet seemed to take captive the popular
+appreciation of the day, for more than three thousand copies had been sold
+within the first six months, and his sister told Domett that she regarded
+it as the most swiftly appreciated poem of all her brother's works.
+Certainly it is one of the most alluring of Browning's works,--this
+delightful treatment of the interwoven life of mortals and of the immortal
+gods.
+
+The June of 1872 brought to Browning the sad news of the death of his
+wife's dearest friend, Isa Blagden. "A little volume of Isabella Blagden's
+poems was published after her death," writes Thomas Adolphus Trollope.
+"They are not such as would take the world by storm, but it is impossible
+to read them without perceiving how choice a spirit their author must
+have been, and understanding how she was especially honored with the
+friendship of Mrs. Browning."[14]
+
+On the publication of "Red Cotton Night-cap Country," Browning sent a
+first copy to Tennyson, and the Laureate's son says of it: "Among the
+lines which my father liked were
+
+  'Palatial, gloomy chambers for parade,
+  And passage lengths of lost significance';
+
+and he praised the simile about the man with his dead comrade in the
+lighthouse. He wrote to Mr. Browning: 'My wife has just cut the leaves. I
+have yet again to thank you, and feel rather ashamed that I have nothing
+of my own to send you back.'"
+
+An entry in Tennyson's diary in the following December notes: "Mr.
+Browning dined with us. He was very affectionate and delightful. It was a
+great pleasure to hear his words,--that he had not had so happy a time for
+a long while as since we have been in town."
+
+Tennyson's "Queen Mary" was published in 1875, and on receiving a copy
+from the author Browning wrote expressing thanks for the gift, and even
+more for "Queen Mary the poem." He found it "astonishingly fine"; and he
+adds: "What a joy that such a poem should be, and be yours." The relations
+between the two great poets of the Victorian age were always ideally
+beautiful, in their cordial friendship and their warm mutual appreciation.
+
+In a note dated in the Christmas days of 1876 Browning writes:
+
+    MY DEAR TENNYSON,--True thanks again, this time for the best of
+    Christmas presents, another great work, wise, good, and beautiful. The
+    scene where Harold is overborne to take the oath is perfect, for one
+    instance. What a fine new ray of light you are entwining with your
+    many-colored wreath!...
+
+    All happiness befall you and yours this good season and ever.[15]
+
+
+The present Lord Tennyson, in his biography of his father, makes many
+interesting allusions to the friendship and the pleasant intercourse
+between the poets. "Browning frequently dined with us," he says, "and the
+_tête-à-tête_ conversations between him and my father on every imaginable
+topic were the best talk I have ever heard, so full of repartee, epigram,
+anecdote, depth, and wisdom, too brilliant to be possible to reproduce.
+These brother poets were two of the most widely read men of their time,
+absolutely without a touch of jealousy, and reveling, as it were, in each
+other's power.... Browning had a faculty for absurd and abstruse rhymes,
+and I recall a dinner where Jebb, Miss Thackeray, and Browning were all
+present, and Browning said he could make a rhyme for every word in the
+language. We proposed rhinoceros, and without pause he said,
+
+  'O, if you should see a rhinoceros
+      And a tree be in sight,
+      Climb quick, for his might
+  Is a match for the gods,--he can toss Eros.'"
+
+
+A London friend relates that on one occasion Browning chanced upon a
+literal translation some one had made from the Norwegian:
+
+  "The soul where love abideth not resembles
+  A house by night, without a fire or torch,"
+
+and remarked how easy it would be to put this into rhyme; and immediately
+transmuted it into the couplet,
+
+  "What seems the soul when love's outside the porch?
+  A house by night, without a fire or torch."
+
+
+When Browning's "Inn Album" appeared, and he sent a copy to Tennyson, the
+Laureate responded:
+
+    "MY DEAR BROWNING,--You are the most brotherly of poets, and your
+    brother in the muses thanks you with the affection of a brother. She
+    would thank you too, if she could put hand to pen."
+
+
+Tennyson once remarked to his son, Hallam, that he wished he had written
+Browning's lines:
+
+  "The little more, and how much it is,
+  The little less, and what worlds away."
+
+
+There was an interval of twelve years between the appearance of the
+"Dramatis Personæ" (in 1864) and the publication of "Pacchiarotto." In
+this collection Browning's amusing play of rhyme is much in evidence.
+Among Mr. Browning's most enjoyable experiences were his frequent visits
+to Oxford and Cambridge, in both of which he was an honored guest. In the
+spring of 1877 he had an especially delightful stay at Oxford, the
+pleasure even beginning on the train, "full of men, all my friends," he
+wrote of it; and continued: "I was welcomed on arrival by a Fellow who
+installed me in my rooms--then came the pleasant meeting with Jowett, who
+at once took me to tea with his other guests, the Archbishop of
+Canterbury, the Bishop of London, the Dean of Westminster, Lord Airlie,
+and others."
+
+There was a banquet and much postprandial eloquence that night, and
+Browning mentions among the speakers Lord Coleridge, Professor Smith, Mr.
+Green (on science and literature with a most complimentary appreciation of
+Browning), and "a more rightly-directed one," says the poet, "on Arnold,
+Swinburne, and the old pride of Balliol, Clough, which was cleverly and
+almost touchingly answered by dear Matthew Arnold." The Dean of
+Westminster responded to the toast of "The Fellows and the Scholars," and
+the entire affair lasted over six hours. "But the whole thing," said
+Browning, "was brilliant, genial, and there was a warmth, earnestness, and
+refinement about it which I never experienced in any previous public
+dinner."
+
+The profound impression that Browning made both by his personality and his
+poetic work is further attested by his being again chosen Lord Rector of
+the University of Glasgow. Dr. William Knight, the Professor of Moral
+Philosophy at St. Andrews, urges Browning's acceptance of this office, and
+begs the poet to realize "how the thoughtful youth of Scotland" estimate
+his work. Professor Knight closes by saying that his own obligations to
+Browning, "and to the author of 'Aurora Leigh' are such that of them
+silence is golden." While Mr. Browning was deeply touched by this
+testimonial of esteem, he still, for the second time, declined the honor.
+
+Many readers and lovers of Robert Browning's poem "La Saisiaz" little
+dream of the singular story connected with it. "La Saisiaz" is a chalet
+above Geneva, high up in the Savoyard mountains, looking down on Geneva
+and Lake Leman. It is a tall, white house, with a red roof that attracted
+the lovers of beauty, solitude, and seclusion. Among the few habitués for
+many years were Robert Browning and his sister, Sarianna, and their
+friend, Miss Egerton-Smith. It was the bond of music that especially
+united Browning and this lady, and in London they were apt to frequent
+concerts together. "La Saisiaz" is surrounded by tall poplar trees, but
+the balcony from a third-floor window, which was Browning's room, looked
+through a space in the trees out on the blue lake, and on this balcony he
+would draw out his chair and writing desk. Back of the chalet a steep
+path ran up the mountains, where the three friends often climbed, to enjoy
+a gorgeous and unrivaled sunset spectacle.
+
+In 1877 they were all there as usual in August, and one evening had
+planned that the next day they would start early in the morning and pass
+the day on the mountain, going by carriage, a servant accompanying them
+carrying the basket of luncheon. In the early evening Browning and Miss
+Egerton-Smith were out, pacing up and down the "grass-grown path," and
+talking of the infinite life which includes death and that which is beyond
+death. The next morning she did not appear, and Browning and his sister
+waited for her. They sat out on the terrace after having morning coffee,
+expecting to see the "tall white figure," and finally Miss Browning went
+to her room to ask if she were ill, and she lay dead on the floor. Miss
+Egerton-Smith was buried in the neighboring cemetery of Collonge, where
+her grave, over which a wonderful willow tree bends, is still seen--a
+place of frequent pilgrimage to visitors in this region. Five days after
+her death Browning made the excursion up the mountain alone,
+
+  "But a bitter touched its sweetness, for the thought stung 'Even so
+  Both of us had loved and wondered just the same, five days ago!'"
+
+
+La Salève, the mountain overlooking the Arve and the Rhone Valley, is one
+of the most wildly picturesque points in all the Alpine region. The chalet
+of "La Saisiaz" was perched on this mountain spur, about half-way up the
+mountain, on a shelving terrace, with vast and threatening rocks rising
+behind. The poem called "La Saisiaz" is one of Browning's greatest. It is
+full of mystical questioning and of his positive and radiant assertions of
+faith; it abounds in vivid and exquisite scenic effects, and it has the
+personal touches of tenderness. The morning after her death is thus
+pictured:
+
+  "No, the terrace showed no figure, tall, white, leaning through the
+      wreaths,
+  Tangle-twine of leaf and bloom that intercept the air one breathes."
+
+
+Browning and Miss Egerton-Smith had first met in Florence. She was an
+English lady of means (being part proprietor of the _Liverpool Mercury_)
+and of a reserve of temperament which kept her aloof from people in
+general. With the poet and his sister she was seen in all that cordial
+sweetness of her nature which her sensitive reserve veiled from strangers.
+
+Italy again! A sapphire sky bending over hills and peaks and terraces
+swimming in violet shadows; villas, and sudden views, and arching
+_pianterreni_, and winding roads between low stone walls hidden in their
+riotous overgrowth of roses! And the soft air, the tall black cypresses
+against the sky, the sunsets and the stars, and golden lights, and dear
+Italian phrases! The trailing ivy vines all in a tangle; the wayside
+shrine, the vast white monastery perched on an isolated mountain top; the
+flaming scarlet of the poppies in the grass, the castles and battlements
+dimly caught on the far horizon,--the poetry, the loveliness, the
+ineffable beauty of Italy! Seventeen years had passed since that midsummer
+day when the dear form of his "Lyric Love" had been laid under the
+Florentine lilies, when Browning, in the spring of 1878, returned to his
+Italy. What dreams and associations thronged upon him!
+
+                  "Places are too much,
+  Or else too little for immortal man,--
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+           ... thinking how two hands before
+  Had held up what is left to only one."
+
+Seventeen years had passed, but Venice, the ethereal city, the mystic
+dream of sea and sky, was unchanged, and, however unconsciously, the poet
+was now to initiate another era, another new "state" in his life. He
+never again went farther south than Venice; he could never see Florence
+or Rome again, where _she_ had lived beside him; but the dream city now
+became for him a second and dearer home. With his sister Sarianna, he
+broke the journey by lingering in a hotel on the summit of the Splügen,
+where he indulged himself in those long walks which he loved, Miss
+Browning often accompanying him down the Via Cala Mala, or to the summit
+where they could look down into Lombardy. Browning was at work on his
+"Dramatic Idyls," and not only "Ivan Ivanovitch," but several others were
+written on the Splügen. Pausing at Lago di Como, and a day in Verona, they
+made their way to Asolo, "my very own of all Italian cities," the poet
+would say of it. Asolo, which from its rocky hilltop, has an outlook over
+all Veneto,--over all Italy, it would almost seem, for the towers and
+domes of Venice are visible on a clear day,--gave its full measure of joy
+to Browning, and when they descended into Venice they were domiciled in
+the Palazzo Brandolin-Rota, on the Grand Canal, near the Accademia. In
+Venice he met a Russian lady whom he consulted about some of the names he
+was giving to the characters in his "Ivan Ivanovitch."
+
+The success of his son in the Paris Salon and other exhibitions was a
+continual happiness to Mr. Browning. Both in Paris and in London the
+pictures of Barrett Browning were accorded an honorable place "on the
+line"; he received a medal from the Salon, and there was not wanting,
+either, that commercial side of success that sustains its theory. The
+young artist had now seriously entered on sculpture, under Rodin, with
+much prestige and promise.
+
+The first series of "Dramatic Idyls" was published in the autumn of 1872,
+closely following "La Saisiaz" and the "Two Poets of Croisic." The devoted
+student of Browning could hardly fail to be impressed by one feature of
+his poetry which, though a prominent one, has received little attention
+from the critics. This feature is his doctrine of the sub-self, as the
+source of man's highest spiritual knowledge. He has given his fullest
+expression of this belief in his "Paracelsus," and it appears in
+"Sordello" (especially in the fifth book), in "A Death in the Desert," in
+"Fifine," and in "Christopher Smart," and is largely developed in "The
+Ring and the Book." Again, in "Beatrice Signorini," contained in
+"Asolando," published only on the day of his death, this theory is again
+apparent, and these instances are only partial out of the many in which
+the doctrine is touched or elaborated, showing how vital it was with him
+from the earliest to the latest period of his work. Another striking
+quality in Browning is that of the homogeneous spirit of his entire poetic
+expression. It is the great unity in an equally great variety. It is
+always clear as to the direction in which Browning is moving, and as to
+the supreme message of his philosophy of life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+1880-1888
+
+  "Moreover something is or seems,
+  That touches me with mystic gleams,
+  Like shadows of forgotten dreams."
+
+  "Alas! our memories may retrace
+  Each circumstance of time and place,
+  Season and change come back again,
+  And outward things unchanged remain;
+  The rest we cannot re-instate;
+  Ourselves we cannot re-create;
+  Nor set our souls to the same key
+  Of the remembered harmony!"
+
+
+"LES CHARMETTES"--VENETIAN DAYS--DR. HIRAM CORSON--THE BROWNING SOCIETY--
+    OXFORD HONORS BROWNING--KATHERINE DEKAY BRONSON--HONORS FROM
+    EDINBURGH--VISIT TO PROFESSOR MASSON--ITALIAN RECOGNITION--NANCIONI--
+    THE GOLDONI SONNET--AT ST. MORITZ--IN PALAZZO GIUSTINIANI--
+    "FERISHTAH'S FANCIES"--COMPANIONSHIP WITH HIS SON--DEATH OF MILSAND--
+    LETTERS TO MRS. BRONSON--DEVERE GARDENS--PALAZZO REZZONICO--SUNSETS
+    FROM THE LIDO--ROBERT BARRETT BROWNING'S GIFT IN PORTRAITURE.
+
+
+Twenty-five years after Robert Browning had visited the famous haunts of
+Rousseau with his wife, he again made a little sojourn with his sister in
+lovely Chambéry, making various excursions in all the picturesque region
+about, and again visiting "Les Charmettes," which Miss Browning had not
+before seen; as before, Browning sat down to the old harpsichord,
+attempting to play "Rousseau's Dream," but only two notes of the antique
+instrument responded to his touch. Through all the wonderful scenery of
+the Mont Cenis pass they proceeded to Turin and thence to Venice, where
+they arrived in the midst of the festivities of the Congress Carnival in
+September of 1881. The Storys, whom Browning had anticipated meeting in
+Venice, had gone to Vallombrosa, where their daughter (the Marchesa
+Peruzzi di' Medici) had a villa, to which the family retired in summer
+from their stately old palace in Florence. Mr. Story's two sons, the
+painter and the sculptor, both had studios in Venice at this time, and Mr.
+Browning often strolled into these. Among other friends Browning and his
+sister visited the Countess Mocenigo, who was ensconced in the same palace
+that Byron had occupied. She showed her guests through all the rooms with
+their classic associations, and Browning sat down to the desk at which
+Byron had written the last canto of "Childe Harold." To the satisfaction
+of the Brownings, Venice soon regained her usual quiet,--that wonderful
+silence broken only by the plash of water against marble steps, and the
+cries of the gondoliers,--and he resumed his long walks, often accompanied
+by Miss Browning, exploring every curious haunt and lingering in shops and
+squares. The poet familiarized himself with the enchanting dream city, as
+no tours in gondolas alone could ever do. To him Venice came to be dear
+beyond words, and soon after he made all arrangements to purchase the
+Palazzo Manzoni, an ancient Venetian palace of the fifteenth century,
+whose façade was a faint glow of color from its medallions of colored
+marbles, and whose balconies and arched windows seemed especially designed
+for a poet's habitation. But the ancient structure was found to be in a
+too perilous condition, and Browning, with never-failing regret, resigned
+the prospect; nor was he ever consoled, it is said, until, some years
+later, his son became the owner of the noble Palazzo Rezzonico.
+
+Every day the poet saw Venice transformed into new splendor. "To see these
+divine sunsets is the joy of life," he would say, as a city, flushed with
+rose, reflected itself in pale green waters, and the golden sunset filled
+with liquid light every narrow street and passage, contrasting sharply
+with the dense black shadows. Browning had a love of the sky that made its
+glorious panorama one of the delights of his life.
+
+One of the crowning honors of the poet's life invested these days for him
+with renewed vitality of interest,--that of the formation of the Browning
+Society in London for the study and promulgation of his poetic work. This
+was, indeed, a contrast to the public attitude of thirty years before.
+Once, in a letter to Mrs. Millais (dated January 7, 1867) he had described
+himself to her as "the most unpopular poet that ever was." The Browning
+Society was due, in its first inception, to Dr. Furnivall and to Miss
+Emily Hickey, and its founding was entirely without Browning's knowledge.
+Although the poet avowed himself as "quite other than a Browningite," he
+could not fail to be touched and gratified by such a mark of interest and
+appreciation.
+
+Dr. Hiram Corson, Professor of Literature at Cornell University, had,
+however, formed a Browning Club, composed of professors and their wives
+and many eminent scholars, some four or five years before the formation of
+the Browning Society in London, and the notable Browning readings which
+Professor Corson had given continually in many of the large cities and
+before universities, had been of incalculable aid in making Robert
+Browning's poetry known and understood in the United States. As an
+interpreter of Browning, Dr. Corson stood unrivaled. His aim was to give
+to his audience the spiritual meaning of the poem read. His rich voice had
+the choral intonation without which no poem can be vocally interpreted.
+His reading gave not only the articulated thought, but the spiritual
+message of the poet. It is hardly too much to say that no one has ever
+fully realized the dramatic power of Browning who has not listened to the
+interpretation of Dr. Corson. Of his own part in the creation of the
+Browning Society in London, Dr. Corson kindly contributed this record:
+
+    "I was stopping with my wife at the Inns of Court Hotel, on High
+    Holborn. A day or two before receiving Mr. Browning's invitation, Dr.
+    Frederick James Furnivall dined with us, and after dinner we went over
+    to the Inns of Court Gardens, just back of the hotel. There we walked
+    about during the long evening twilight, and talked over the founding
+    of a Society which Dr. Furnivall and Miss Emily Henriette Hickey, the
+    poetess, had been contemplating, for the study of Browning's poetry. I
+    told him of what I had done at Cornell University, the previous four
+    or five years, in a Browning Club composed of Professors and their
+    wives, and in my University classes. It was decided that the London
+    Browning Society should be organized in October; and I engaged to go
+    over to England the following June, and read a paper before the
+    Society; which I did at its eighth meeting, on the 23d of June, the
+    subject of the paper being 'The Idea of Personality as embodied in
+    Robert Browning's Poetry, and of Art as an intermediate Agency of
+    Personality.'"
+
+
+Another source of joy to Browning, and one that far exceeded that of any
+recognition of himself, was the increasing recognition of his son's
+achievements in art. Barrett Browning was at this time a pupil of Rodin in
+Paris, devoting himself to sculpture with the same ardor that he gave to
+his painting. As to which expression in art was the more his métier, _chi
+lo sa_? The young man was the child of the muses, and all forms of art
+were to him a temperamental inheritance.
+
+Oxford again honored Browning, this time in the June of 1882, with the
+degree of D.C.L. "I never saw my father happier than on this occasion,"
+Mr. Barrett Browning said to the writer of this volume when questioned
+regarding it; and another observer who was present speaks of Browning's
+distinction in his red Oxford gown, his shoulders thrown back, and his
+swift, light step. One of the humors of the occasion was the dangling of a
+red cotton night-cap over his head by one of the undergraduates, who was
+in danger of a not ill-merited rebuke, but Browning interceded with the
+Vice-Chancellor not to be too hard "on the harmless drolleries of the
+young man." It was in this Oxford gown, holding in his hand "the square
+old yellow book," that Robert Barrett Browning painted the portrait of his
+father, which he presented to Oxford, and which now hangs, a treasured
+possession, in Balliol Hall, to which portrait some allusion has already
+been made.
+
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF ROBERT BROWNING, BY HIS SON.
+
+Painted in 1882, and presented to Oxford University by the artist.]
+
+
+One of the most beautiful of the friendships of the last decade of the
+poet's life was that with Mrs. Arthur Bronson, a very cultivated and
+charming American woman who for more than twenty years made her home in
+Venice. Casa Alvisi, on the Grand Canal, opposite Santa Maria della
+Salute, came to be such a delightful center of social life for the choice
+circle that Mrs. Bronson gathered around her, that its records fairly
+enter into the modern history of Venice. Adjoining Casa Alvisi was the old
+Giustiniani Palace, in which Mrs. Bronson had taken a suite of rooms that
+she might use them in dispensing her hospitalities. No one who has been
+the privileged guest of Mrs. Bronson can ever lose the grateful
+appreciation of her genius as a hostess. Her lovely hospitality was
+dispensed with the quality that entitled it to be considered as absolutely
+a special gift of the gods, and when she invited Browning and his sister
+to occupy these rooms in the Palazzo Giustiniani Recanti, it was with a
+grace that forestalled any refusal. At first Miss Browning did a little
+housekeeping on their own account, except that they dined and passed
+the evening with Mrs. Bronson; later on, for several seasons, they were
+her house-guests in Casa Alvisi,--that unique and dream-enchanted interior
+crowded with lovely Venetian things, and bibelots and bric-à-brac picked
+up the world over. But the brother and sister always occupied the rooms in
+the palace. It was after the first one of this series of annual visits
+that Browning wrote to Mrs. Bronson the following letter after his return
+to London:
+
+    19, WARWICK CRESCENT, W.
+
+    Nov. 18, '81.
+
+    I would not write at first arriving, Dear Friend, because I fancied
+    that I might say too much all at once, and afterward be afraid of
+    beginning again till some interval; this fortnight since I saw you,
+    however, must pass for a very long interval indeed, I will try to tell
+    you as quietly as possible that I never shall feel your
+    kindness,--such kindness!--one whit less than I do now; perhaps I feel
+    it "now" even more deeply than I could, at all events, realize that I
+    was feeling.
+
+    You have given Venice an appreciation that will live in my mind with
+    every delight of that dearest place in the world. But all the same you
+    remain for me a dearest of friends, whether I see you framed by your
+    Venice, or brightening up our bleak London, should you come there. In
+    Venice, however, should I live and you be there next autumn, it will
+    go hard with me if I do not meet you again.
+
+    What a book of memories, and instigations to get still more memories,
+    does your most beautiful and precious book prove to me! I never
+    supposed that photographers would have the good sense to use their art
+    on so many out-of-the-way scenes and sights, just those I love
+    most....
+
+    You--you have lost Lowell, and Field, and the rest of the good
+    fellowship, but you will be sure of a succession of the sort.
+
+
+On the poet's seventieth birthday he received, from the Browning Societies
+of Oxford, Cambridge, Cornell University, and others, a gift of a
+complete set of his own works, bound in olive green morocco, in a
+beautifully carved oak case, with this inscription:
+
+    "To Robert Browning on his seventieth birthday, May 7th, 1882, from
+    some members of the Browning Societies. These members having
+    ascertained that the works of a Great Modern Poet are never in Robert
+    Browning's house, beg him to accept a set of these works which they
+    assure him will be found worthy of his most serious attention."
+
+
+Dr. Corson has related that when he visited the poet at one time Browning
+showed him this case, placed against the wall of the drawing-room, with an
+almost boyish delight.
+
+In August of 1882, on their leisurely way to Venice, Browning and his
+sister lingered at Saint-Pierre la Chartreuse and at Gressoney Saint-Jean,
+where his enchanting outlook upon Monte Rosa was a continual joy, Mr.
+Browning spent one night in the monastery of the Grand Chartreuse, in
+order to hear the midnight mass; while Miss Browning, denied hospitality
+in the monastery, received that of the convent near at hand, where she was
+cordially entertained by the Mother Superior.
+
+The Prologue of "Ferishtah's Fancies," published the next year, is dated
+from Gressoney, Val d'Aosta, and the lines,
+
+  "A fancy-freak by contrast born of thee,
+     Delightful Gressoney!"
+
+will recall themselves to the memory. Miss Browning was an ideal companion
+in these mountain wanderings. She was equal to endless walks, and she had
+the accomplishment of being able to ride a mule or a donkey as one to the
+manor born. From Gressoney they looked up to the glaciers of Monte Rosa,
+almost overhanging, and from Saint-Pierre Browning wrote to a friend that
+they were in the roughest and most primitive inn, "but my sister bears it
+bravely."
+
+Italian recognition of Browning was stimulated and extended, if not
+primarily inspired, by Il Signor Dottore Nancioni, who had the Chair of
+Literature in the University of Florence, and whom the Brownings had first
+met in the old Siena days. As Milsand first made Browning known in France,
+through his critical papers in the _Revue_, so Nancioni published, in the
+_Nuova Antologia_, and in the _Fanfulla della Domenica_ of Rome, several
+papers devoted to serious and critical study and interpretation of
+Browning's work; and he made the journey from Rome to Venice to meet the
+poet again. The recital of poetry was by no means ended in Italy in the
+days of the _Improvvisatori_, and Professor Nanciani frequently gave
+readings from Browning before cultivated Italian audiences.
+
+When Venice honored Goldoni with a statue, Browning was invited to
+contribute to that wonderful "Album" of letters, with which Italy
+characteristically commemorates all scholarly events, with contributions
+from literary men. The sonnet so pleased the Venetians that they gave it
+the place of honor in the album.
+
+The London seasons during all these years were of unrivaled brilliancy.
+Browning was seen in all the great houses, and often for two weeks he
+would dine out every consecutive night. Dr. Corson, whose first visit to
+Browning was made in the early eighties, gave to a friend in a personal
+letter this little transcription of his first meeting with the poet, with
+whom he had long been in correspondence:
+
+    "He received me in the drawing-room, on the second floor. After a few
+    minutes' conversation, he showed me various interesting things, in the
+    drawing-room, busts and portraits and mementoes of Mrs. Browning,
+    keeping up a rapid and meandering current of talk. Something was said,
+    I forget what, which caused me to allude to 'the Book,' the 'square
+    old yellow book,' with 'crumpled vellum covers,' which he picked out
+    of the market-day trumpery in the Piazza San Lorenzo, in Florence, and
+    which led to the composition of his masterpiece, 'The Ring and the
+    Book,' 'I'll take you down in a few minutes,' he said, 'to the
+    library, and show it to you.' When we left the drawing-room and were
+    at the top of the stairway, he, with an apparent unconsciousness, and
+    as if I were a younger brother, put his arm over my off shoulder, and
+    so descended with me, talking all the while at his usual rapid rate. I
+    tell this little incident, as I observed later, on several occasions,
+    such an expression of unconscious cordiality and good fellowship was a
+    characteristic of him.
+
+    "Beside his chair, at the writing table, stood Mrs. Browning's
+    low-seated, high and straight-backed, black haircloth covered chair,
+    on which were piled books almost to the top of the back, which most
+    effectually excluded any one from the honor of sitting in it.
+
+    "When showing me 'The Book,' he called my attention to passages in the
+    Latin portion of it--the arguments of the two lawyers, Bottinius and
+    Hyacinthus de Archangelis, and I was struck with the way in which he
+    translated them, the rapid and close recasting of the thought in
+    English, a rare gift even with the best Latin scholars. I had
+    occasions to discover, in subsequent visits, that he read the Greek in
+    a genial way and with less grammatical consciousness than do many
+    Greek professors. His scholarship was extensive and, I would add,
+    _vital_, it not having been imposed upon him at a public school and a
+    university, and he having had what must have been Shakespeare's power
+    of acquiring and absorbing knowledge of all kinds. On some subsequent
+    visit, I don't remember what we had been talking about that led to the
+    remark, he said to me, in his rapid mode of speech, 'I never could
+    have done much at a public school,' meaning, of course, an endowed
+    foundation school, such as Eton and others, in which there is a
+    special preparation for the Universities. After a pause, he added,
+    'no, nor at a university either. Italy was _my_ university.' In his
+    'De Gustibus----' he says:
+
+      'Open my heart and you will see
+      Graved inside of it, Italy.'
+
+
+    "While he was showing me 'The Book,' I asked him about a passage in
+    'The Ring and the Book.' He replied, 'I don't remember the passage. It
+    has been some time since I read the poem, and I haven't a copy of it
+    in my house!'
+
+    "He showed me many of Mrs. Browning's books--nearly all of them 24mo
+    editions--said she couldn't hold big books--English, French, Italian,
+    Latin, and Greek books; a Hebrew Bible which had belonged to a
+    distinguished English bishop, whose name I've forgotten. 'Did Mrs.
+    Browning read Hebrew?' I asked. 'Oh, yes,' he replied, and added with
+    a sigh, 'she was a wonderful woman.'"
+
+
+[Illustration: CHURCH OF SAN LORENZO, FLORENCE
+
+  "_June was the month, Lorenzo named the Square._"
+
+  The Ring and the Book.]
+
+
+The succeeding summer found the Corsons again in London, and the following
+invitation from Browning particularly pleased them in its assurance that
+"nobody else" would be present.
+
+    DEAR PROFESSOR CORSON,--Could Mrs. Corson and yourself do my sister
+    and me the great pleasure of taking luncheon with us--and nobody
+    else--next Tuesday (27th) at one o'clock?
+
+    Believe me, dear Professor Corson,
+
+    Yours Truly Ever,--
+
+    ROBERT BROWNING.
+
+
+On Browning's return to England in 1861, after his wife's death, he had
+entered into a most brilliant and congenial social life. Thackeray died
+soon after his return; but there were Carlyle, Ruskin, Jowett, Millais,
+Rossetti, Proctor, Matthew Arnold, Woolner, Leighton, Tennyson (whose
+companionship, as we have seen, was one of his keenest enjoyments), and
+his publisher, George Murray Smith, of the head of the house of Smith,
+Elder, and Company, who was one of his chosen friends. Carlyle died in
+1881, but many of this group well outlived Browning. On New Year's Day of
+1884 Miss Browning wrote to Mrs. Bronson:
+
+    The very first word I write this year is to you, dearest friend,
+    wishing you every good gift the earth below, and Heaven above, can
+    offer. If Robert does not write his own share in these kind feelings,
+    it is only because we have mutually agreed that we shall come more
+    constantly before you if we keep our letters apart.
+
+    ... You cannot think how incessantly we dwell on the memories of the
+    pleasant past. We are in Casa Alvisi in spirit daily, and I picture to
+    myself all that is going on in the well-loved rooms. I hope Edith
+    works at her guitar. She will find that it will repay the trouble.
+
+    Give our kindest love to her, and take yourself our loving hearts.
+
+    God bless you this year.
+
+    Ever Yours Affectionately,
+
+    SARIANNA BROWNING.
+
+
+In a letter to Mrs. Bronson Browning alludes to the purchase of the new
+house in DeVere Gardens:
+
+    "... I am really in treaty--not too deeply _in_ it for extrication at
+    need--with the land-owner who proposes to build me the house I
+    want,--freehold, if you please! so that it can be Pen's after me; my
+    notion is to contract just what Sarianna and I require now, leaving it
+    in the said Pen's power to add and alter according to future
+    advisability."
+
+
+Portions of other letters from Browning to Mrs. Bronson are as follows.
+The first refers to the little daughter of Princess Mélanie Metternich.
+
+    "First and worst of all, dear friend, how truly grieved I am to hear
+    of the sad end of the poor little girl I remember so well. Do you
+    remember how she, with her sister, walked before us on our way
+    homeward from the Piazza on nearly our last evening? And how prettily
+    she asked me at her own house to write in her Birthday Book! All this
+    sudden extinction of light in the gay Ca' Bembo, where I saw the silks
+    bespread before your knowledge and my ignorance!
+
+    "It is needless to say how much I pity the Princess, and her kindly
+    husband, too, and I am sorry, very sorry, for you also, Dear Friend of
+    mine, well knowing how you must have suffered in degree."
+
+
+Mrs. Bronson had a talent for the writing of drawing-room comedies, and to
+one of these the poet alludes:
+
+    "DEAR FRIEND,--I kept your Comedietta by me a whole week that I might
+    taste of it again and again; how clever it is, who can know better
+    than I, who furnished the bare framework which your Virginia creeper
+    has over-flourished so charmingly? It is all capitally done; quite as
+    much elaborated as the little conception was worth; but its great
+    value to me is the proof it really gives what really good work you
+    might do on a larger scale....
+
+    "... I dined last evening at John Murray's, in the room where used to
+    meet Byron, Scott, Moore, all those famous men of old, whose portraits
+    still adorn the walls. Murray told me he well remembered Byron and his
+    ways; could still in fancy see him and Scott, and also hear them, as
+    they stamped heavily (lame as both were) down the somewhat narrow
+    stairs. Sociability may well come to the relief of people who cannot
+    amuse themselves at home, for the weather, mild, and too mild, is
+    gray, sunless and spiritless, altogether. To-day it rains, a rare
+    occurrence...."
+
+
+One of the very pleasant interludes in Mr. Browning's life came about this
+time in the receipt of a letter from Professor Masson of the University of
+Edinburgh, inviting the poet to be his guest the week of the coming
+Tercentenary celebration of the University. It had been decided to confer
+on Mr. Browning an Honorary Degree, but by some misadventure the official
+letter announcing this had not reached him, and in reply to Professor
+Masson he wrote that he had not received "the invitation to Edinburgh
+which occasions this particularly kind one," which he thankfully
+acknowledged, "but I should find it difficult if not impossible to leave
+London in April," he continues, "as my son will then be with me; but had I
+seen my way in so doing it would delight me, indeed, could I spend the
+days in question with you and Mrs. Masson." He added that if ever he was
+privileged "to see the as famous as beautiful City again," he should call
+on the Massons the first thing of all, and he desired thanks to Mrs.
+Masson "for associating her goodness with yours."
+
+Apparently another letter appears from Professor Masson, but still
+Browning does not receive the official invitation of the University.
+"Should it follow," he writes, "I will acknowledge the distinction as
+gratefully as I have done already when it was conferred by Oxford and
+Cambridge." The Massons also invited Mr. Browning to bring his son with
+him, and he responded:
+
+    "... So, my dear Professor Masson, I provisionally accept your
+    hospitality with thankfulness, and that of Mrs. Masson. For my son,
+    who is away, I can only say that he shall be informed of your
+    goodness, and I fully believe will be delighted to avail himself of
+    it.... As to the 'vagueness or intelligibility' of your note, I can
+    assure you that one thing was intelligible enough,--that you wished to
+    help me most kindly and pleasantly to witness an extremely interesting
+    ceremony, and I have written to my son and his answer you shall hear
+    as soon as possible.... By the way, ought I to attend in the Oxford
+    D.C.L. gown,--at any preliminary entertainment, for instance."
+
+
+The next letter tells its own story.
+
+    19, WARWICK CRESCENT, W.
+
+    March 25th, 1884.
+
+    MY DEAR PROFESSOR MASSON,--Nothing can be kinder than all your
+    proposed arrangements. My son arrived two days ago, and,
+    unfortunately, is obliged to return to Paris next week in order to
+    finish work begun there--and he will be detained too long to allow of
+    the visit which he would otherwise delight in paying you and for the
+    invitation to which he desires me to offer you and Mrs. Masson his
+    grateful acknowledgments, being well aware of what a privilege he is
+    forced to deprive himself.... I shall bring the Oxford D.C.L. gown and
+    provide myself with a Hood in Edinburgh.
+
+    So, with repeated thanks for all your goodness, and looking forward
+    with much pleasure to the approaching festivities, and even more in
+    the opportunity to converse, believe me, my dear Professor Masson,
+
+    Yours Very Sincerely,
+
+    ROBERT BROWNING.
+
+
+Miss Rosaline Masson, the Professor's daughter, has described how Browning
+sat before the fire the evening of his arrival, in an armchair, his hands
+resting on it, while he spoke with sympathetic pride of his son's work,
+and told how the son, who had studied so much abroad, had once announced
+to Millais his intention of going to Egypt to paint, and that Millais had
+replied that he would not give up his months in the highlands of Scotland
+for any years in Egypt.
+
+The Massons had as their guests for this great commemoration the Count and
+Countess Aurelio Saffi, the Count bringing with him his gorgeous Bologna
+gown, in which he had the resplendence of a figure in a stained glass
+window.
+
+The week was a most enjoyable one to Mr. Browning. Receptions and dinners
+made up a round of festivity, and when he was asked by his hostess if he
+objected to all the adulation he received, he replied: "Object to it? No;
+I have waited forty years for it and now--I like it."
+
+After his return to London he sent to Mrs. Masson two manuscripts of Mrs.
+Browning's, her translations of "Psyche and Pan" and of "Psyche
+Propitiating Ceres," and to Professor Masson a letter from Leigh Hunt to
+himself, which the Professor had wished to copy,--the original which he
+sent being written on sheets of different colors held together with
+colored embroidery.
+
+Browning wrote to his host that he had read with delight his two lectures
+on Carlyle, and that "the goodness of that memorable week" was never long
+out of his mind.
+
+The letters written to Mrs. Bronson offer almost a panoramic picture of
+his life over all these closing years. Alluding to a studio that he had
+taken for the temporary accommodation of his son's pictures and busts, Mr.
+Browning resumes:
+
+    ... Pen's statues and busts are in bronze now, and his large "Idyl,"
+    three landscapes, and whatsoever else, to arrive soon. Were you only
+    here to see! Well, you can bear with the talking about them you shall
+    undergo, for we two understand each other, don't we? I know I am ever
+    yours and your own Edith's affectionately,
+
+    ROBERT BROWNING.
+
+
+In the late summer Browning and his sister were the guests of Mrs.
+Bloomfield Moore, in her villa at St. Moritz, from which Mr. Browning thus
+writes to Mrs. Bronson:
+
+    VILLA BERRY, ST. MORITZ, OBER ENGADINE.
+
+    Sept. 6, '84.
+
+    Yes, dearest friend, your pretty wreath came this morning, and
+    opposite this table shall it hang till I leave the house, be it
+    withered or no, and at present it is fresh. Now, thank you for what?
+    For everything, your love, and thoughts, and regrets, too. Do not we,
+    too, regret that Italy is closed to us; but the comfort out of the
+    vexation is that you will, will you not, cross to London from Paris,
+    and so we shall see you for all the multiplied hindrances. Now how do
+    you suppose it is faring with us? We are alone. Our hostess was
+    summoned to America last week, to her extreme regret, and after a hot
+    business of telegraphing and being telegraphed to, left last
+    Wednesday. She had taken this comfortable villa till the middle of
+    December, and would not hear of our quitting it, and, all things
+    considered, we had little inclination to do so, for you were from
+    home, and what would be the good of lingering out this month
+    elsewhere, the air and influences happening to suit us extremely. So
+    our plan is to stay out Sept. here, and be content with at most two
+    months' absence, instead of the four we utterly enjoyed last year.
+    Mrs. Moore was altogether as kind and considerate as possible, and has
+    made every possible provision for our comfort after her departure. We
+    are quite alone. Friends are in the place, but we only get glimpses of
+    them. The place is emptying fast, the pensions shut up, the walks on
+    the mountain-side are wholly our own. Two days ago the snow fell
+    thickly, and what a sight were the mountains next morning in a glowing
+    sun! These changes I expect will diversify the whole month, and inside
+    this warm, pleasant room Sarianna and I read, and don't require "the
+    devil to find some missing ill for idle hands to do." You have much
+    more to enjoy with all that good music thrown in, and I am glad for
+    you. We get books and papers enough, and I am correcting proofs of the
+    poem I was too negligent about in London. Many distractions stood in
+    the way of that. After all, we have attained the main object of our
+    journey, the complete re-establishment of Sarianna's health, who walks
+    twice a day, just as of old. I am cheered, too, by letters from
+    Robert, the last of which comes just now.
+
+    He was anxious that his statue of "Dryope" should be seen at the
+    Brussels exhibition, a triennial one, and important from the
+    concurrence of the best foreign artists; but the "Grosvenor," where it
+    was shown, did not close till the first week in August, while the
+    Brussels Gallery was closed to (entrance of) works on the 25th of
+    July. Robert sent his photographs with a petition for a "delai," only
+    exceptionally granted; the committee conceded it unanimously, and have
+    given it a place where it stands by itself, and is capitally seen. He
+    went to see it, and so did the King and Queen, to whom he would have
+    been presented, had he not been in morning dress. (The father of
+    Robert to the mother of Edith.) You know very well how interested and
+    delighted I shall be to read your German translations if you send
+    them; do!
+
+
+Again, from this invigorating mountain village Browning writes to his
+Venetian friend and hostess in Casa Alvisi:
+
+    VILLA BERRY, ST. MORITZ, ENGADINE, S.
+
+    Sept. 23, '84.
+
+    For first thing, dearest friend, I am glad to know that my letter with
+    the poems reached you before your departure. I had some fear that you
+    might miss it. It is like your goodness to care so much about what
+    amounts to so little. I did what I could to be of use by amending; I
+    could have done more to the purpose if the poems were original; but I
+    know your translations were faithful, as they should be. When you
+    write out of your own dear head let me see, and try hard to improve
+    it, never so little. I well remember the whole book of verses you let
+    me read at Venice; I could not well have helped you there. And now for
+    a sorrow after the gladness; we do not pass through Paris this time,
+    but take the direct and more convenient route by Amiens and Calais.
+    Last year we wanted, or needed, to see Pen, who was at his Paris
+    studio; but now he is still in Dinard. I do not know when he means to
+    leave; if he finds you at Paris it will be a delight for him to see
+    you....
+
+    Well, yes, the king's behavior has been admirable; what a chance the
+    poor Pope has thrown away in not preceding him! If the "Prisoner of
+    the Vatican" had quietly walked out of his confinement, with a Cross
+    before him, and an attendant on each side, and passed on to Naples and
+    the hospitals "braving all danger in imitation of his Master," I
+    verily believe there might have happened a revolution. Such events
+    from much less causes being frequent enough. Where is the "wisdom of
+    the serpent"?
+
+    Dearest friend, my sister writes, all love to Edith, all love to you,
+    from your ever affectionate
+
+    ROBERT BROWNING.
+
+
+On their return to London the letters to Mrs. Bronson again resume the
+story of this interesting life:
+
+    "... I have got rid of my last proof-sheets, and all of a sudden it
+    occurs to me to ask--now that alteration is impossible, I
+    suppose--whether I have offended in just dating the last poem from the
+    place where I wrote it--the Giustiniani? The first poem was dated at
+    the inn, and the last seemed to belong to the beloved place where it
+    was penned, as I wanted to remember, or be remembered, rather. Have I
+    done wrong? (I hear at this moment my sister actually singing in the
+    next room,--so completely is she re-established in health.) By letters
+    we find that the admirable weather at St. Moritz was continued up to
+    the end of the last week; here the weather is fine, and finer than
+    usual, but the sparkle is off the wine, the wonderful freshness of St.
+    Moritz does not incline one to dance rather than walk.
+
+    "I am in absolute peace and quietude, and so thoroughly prepared to
+    enjoy your coming,--if that may be...."
+
+
+The next letter speaks of American friends:
+
+    19, WARWICK CRESCENT, W.
+
+    Oct. 14, '84.
+
+    DEAREST FRIEND,--I waited a little before replying to your letter,
+    wanting to be sure when I could say that Pen would be in Paris; he
+    proposed to go there yesterday, and you will certainly have a visit
+    from him as soon as he can manage to do what I know he desires very
+    much.
+
+    Here are your verses which I try to be as severe about as possible,
+    with no success, at all, worth speaking of! You will take my
+    corrections (infinitesimal, this time) for what they are worth, and
+    continue to send me what you write, will you not?
+
+    I was surprised two days ago by a note from Mr. Lowell, inviting me
+    and my sister to meet the Storys at dinner to-morrow, they being his
+    guests during a short stay in London; and yesterday afternoon they
+    called on my sister, both the Storys and Mr. Lowell; the former are
+    flourishing, and go in a few days to Rome. Where they have passed the
+    summer, we were not told. Last evening at a dinner given by Sidney
+    Colvin, I met Mr. James, who showed great interest in hearing how you
+    were, and how much nearer you were likely to be. On the other hand,
+    there will be a sad visitor to Venice presently, Professor Huxley, in
+    a deplorable state of health, from over-work. I hate to speak of what
+    is only too present with me,--your own health,--I trust you have got
+    rid of that cough, (all dreadful things go with a cough in my
+    memory.)...
+
+    ... My book, which you kindly inquire about, is out of my hands and in
+    print, but the publishing, the when and how, concerns the publisher. I
+    do not expect to see the completed thing for another month.
+
+    Yes, I felt so lovingly to the Giustinian-Reconnati that I could not
+    bear cutting the link allowed by the Place and Date that were appended
+    to the Ms., and you permit, so all is well, if you remember me as ever
+    affectionately yours,
+
+    ROBERT BROWNING.
+
+
+Under date of October 23, 1884, Browning says in one letter:
+
+    "I saw Huxley's brother-in-law, Sir Robert Collier, last evening, at
+    Dr. Granville's, and inquired about the stay in Venice. It will be a
+    very short one as he has to return almost immediately for the marriage
+    of his daughter Rachel; I can hardly think he will re-return, the
+    ceremony at an end, yet he may; and in that case he shall be informed
+    of your goodness to himward, in apostolically appropriate language. He
+    is a thoroughly admirable person in all but his inconsiderateness in
+    this waste of a precious life. I duly told the Storys how much you
+    wanted to see them, and they probably have seen you by this time. Mrs.
+    Story meant to rest at Paris, and forego the Amiens route. She has
+    been unwell, but I thought her appearance very satisfactory. I dined
+    with them last week at Mr. Lowell's, and called there on Sunday. I met
+    Henry James the other day, and surprised as well as inspirited him by
+    the news that you were so near, and, as I believed, so soon to be
+    nearer. Now write to me, tell me all you are about to do; how is dear
+    Edith?...
+
+    O, no, Pen is none of mine to outward view, but wholly his
+    mother's--in some respects, at least. At the same age there was small
+    difference between Pen's face and that of the brother she lost,--to
+    judge by a drawing I possess...."
+
+
+To the Marchesa Peruzzi di' Medici who sent to him a translation she had
+made of the "Ricordo Autobiografici" of Giovanni Duprè, Browning thus
+writes:[16]
+
+    "It is not so very 'little' an affair, and in the fear that when my
+    sister has finished it, I may have to begin my own reading, and end it
+    so late as to lead you to suppose that either book or letter has gone
+    wrong, on this account I write at once to thank you most heartily. My
+    sister says the Autobiography is fascinating; I can well believe it,
+    for I never knew such a work to be without interest, and this of Duprè
+    must abound in precisely the matters that interest me most.... When I
+    have thoroughly gone through the book I will write you again, if you
+    permit me, as I know your old memories will be indulgent in the case.
+    We may be in Italy this autumn, and if you are within reach you will
+    be certain to see the old friend who always rejoices when he hears of
+    your well-being, and trusts it may continue.... Pen is very well; at
+    Dinard just now, painting landscape in the open air. I have told him
+    already of the book which he will take delight in reading. I am
+    occupied this very day in sending his statue of 'Dryope' to Brussels,
+    where the Exhibition will give it a chance of being judged by better
+    knowledge than is found here."
+
+
+The following letter indicates, in Browning's own charming way, the warm
+attachment that both he and his sister had for Mrs. Bronson:
+
+    19, WARWICK CRESCENT, W.
+
+    Feb. 15, '85.
+
+    DEAREST MRS. BRONSON,--This dull morning grew to near blackness
+    itself, when, at breakfast, my sister said once again, "No news of her
+    from Venice,"--and I once again calculated and found by this time it
+    was a month and a full half since we heard from you. Why should this
+    be? If I had simply and rationally written a line, instead of thinking
+    a thought, I should have known, as your dear goodness will let me
+    know, as soon as you receive this, how you are, how Edith is, now that
+    the winter is over and gone with the incentives to that cough which
+    was still vexatious when we had your last letter.
+
+    Do not let us mind high-days and holidays: be sure of this, that every
+    day will be truly festal that brings us a word from you, for other
+    clouds than the material ones make us melancholy just now; and how
+    this turbid element about us contrasts with the golden hours near the
+    beloved friends,--perhaps more vivid,--certainly more realized as
+    valuable, than ever! I do not mean to write much because what I want
+    to impress on your generosity is that just a half sheet, with mere
+    intelligence about you, will be a true comfort and sustainment to me
+    and to my sister,--the barest account of yourself, and what we
+    appreciate with you; and, for our part, you shall hear, at least, that
+    we are well, or ailing, stationary, or about to move.
+
+
+In the early spring Browning again writes to Mrs. Bronson:
+
+    19, WARWICK CRESCENT, W.
+
+    April 8, '85.
+
+    DEAREST FRIEND,--This is not a letter, for I have this minute returned
+    from a funeral, in pitiful weather, and am unable either in body or
+    soul to write one, much as I hope to do, with something of my warm
+    self in it. But I find Burne Jones's pretty and touching letter, and
+    want this leaf to serve as an envelope to what may please you, who
+    deserve so thoroughly that it should. I will write in a day or two. I
+    heard from Pen this morning, who is at Dinard, being too ill to remain
+    in Paris, but finds himself already better. He told me and re-told me
+    how good you had been to him. How I trust all is going well with
+    you,--certainly you need no assurance of,--enough that I love you with
+    all my heart. Bless you and your Edith. It is an Edith,--Proctor's
+    (Barry Cornwall's) daughter, whom I have been following to her grave.
+    Some fifty years ago her father said to me while caressing her, "Ah,
+    Browning, this is the Poetry." "I know it." "No, you know nothing
+    about it." Well, if I was ignorant then, I am instructed now. So, dear
+    Two Poems, long may I have you to read and to enjoy!
+
+    Yours affectionately Ever,
+
+    ROBERT BROWNING.
+
+
+In the following autumn Mr. Barrett Browning, who had not seen Venice
+since his infancy, joined his father, and was "simply infatuated" with the
+dream city. It was for his sake that Browning had wished to purchase the
+Manzoni Palace, "to secure for him a perfect domicile, every facility for
+his painting and sculpture."
+
+The autumn of 1886 brought to Browning a great sadness in the death of
+Milsand, and Miss Browning being out of health, and unequal to a
+continental journey, they both passed a part of the autumn at Llangollen,
+where Sir Theodore and Lady Martin (Helen Faucit) were their near
+neighbors, with whom they had tea every Sunday, and renewed one of the
+most delightful friendships.
+
+On the publication of Dr. Corson's "Introduction to the Poetry of
+Browning," he sent a copy to the poet who thus replied:
+
+    19. Warwick Crescent. W.
+
+    Dec. 28. '86.
+
+    My dear Dr Corson,
+
+    I waited some days after the arrival of your Book and Letter thinking
+    I might be able to say more of my sense of your goodness: but I can do
+    no more now than a week ago. You "hope I shall not find too much to
+    disapprove of": what I ought to protest against, is "a load to sink a
+    navy--too much honor": how can I put aside your generosity, as if cold
+    justice--however befitting myself,--would be in better agreement with
+    your nature? Let it remain as an assurance to younger poets that,
+    after fifty years' work unattended by any conspicuous recognition, an
+    over-payment may be made, if there be such another munificent
+    appreciator as I have been privileged to find--in which case let them,
+    even if more deserving, be equally grateful.
+
+    I have not observed anything in need of correction in the notes. The
+    "little tablet" was a famous "Last Supper," mentioned by Varwn, (page.
+    232) and gone astray long ago from the Church of S. Spirito: it turned
+    up, according to report, in some obscure corner, while I was in
+    Florence, and was at once acquired by a stranger. I saw it,--genuine
+    or no, a work of great beauty. (Page 156.) A "canon," in music, is a
+    piece wherein the subject is repeated--in various keys--and being
+    strictly obeyed in the repetition, becomes the "Canon"--the imperative
+    _law_--to what follows. Fifty of such parts would be indeed a notable
+    peal: to manage three is enough of an achievement for a good musician.
+
+    And now,--here is Christmas: all my best wishes go to you and Mrs.
+    Corson--those of my sister also. She was indeed suffering from grave
+    indisposition in the summer, but is happily recovered. I could not
+    venture, under the circumstances, to expose her convalescence to the
+    accidents of foreign travel--hence our contenting ourselves with Wales
+    rather than Italy. Shall you be again induced to visit us? Present or
+    absent, you will remember me always, I trust, as
+
+    Yours most affectionately
+
+    Robert Browning.
+
+
+The year of 1887 was an eventful one in that the "Parleyings" were
+published in the early spring; that Browning removed from Warwick Crescent
+to 29 DeVere Gardens; and that the marriage of his son to Miss Coddington
+of New York was celebrated on October 4 of that year, an event that gave
+the poet added happiness. To a stranger who had asked permission to call
+upon him Browning wrote about this time:
+
+    "... My son returns the day after to-morrow with his wife, from their
+    honeymoon at Venice, to stay with me till to-morrow week only, when
+    they leave for Liverpool and America--there to pass the winter. During
+    their short stay, I am bound to consult their convenience, and they
+    will be engaged in visiting, or being visited by friends, so as to
+    preclude me from any chance of an hour at my own disposal. If you
+    please--or, rather, if circumstances permit you to give me the
+    pleasure of seeing you at twelve on Saturday morning, the first day
+    when I shall be at liberty, I shall be happy to receive you."
+
+
+[Illustrations: Manuscript Letter]
+
+
+The stranger did so arrange that his visit should extend itself over the
+magic date of "November 5th," and on that day he stood at the portal to
+DeVere Gardens house.
+
+    "I was taken up to the poet's study," he writes. "There had been that
+    day a memorial meeting for Matthew Arnold, to which Browning had been,
+    and he spoke with reminiscent sadness of Arnold's life.
+
+    "'I have been thinking all the way home of his hardships,' said Mr.
+    Browning. 'He once told me, when I asked why he had not recently
+    written any poetry, that he could not afford to, but that when he had
+    saved enough, he intended to give up all other work, and devote
+    himself to poetry. I wonder if he has turned to it now?' Browning
+    added musingly."
+
+
+One interesting incident related by this caller is that, having just been
+reading and being greatly impressed by Mr. Nettleship's analysis and
+interpretation of "Childe Roland," he asked the author if he accepted it.
+"Oh, no," replied Mr. Browning; "not at all. Understand, I don't repudiate
+it, either; I only mean that I was conscious of no allegorical intention
+in writing it. 'Twas like this; one year in Florence I had been rather
+lazy; I resolved that I would write something every day. Well, the first
+day I wrote about some roses, suggested by a magnificent basket that some
+one had sent my wife. The next day 'Childe Roland' came upon me as a kind
+of dream. I had to write it, then and there, and I finished it the same
+day, I believe. But it was simply that I had to do it. I did not know then
+what I meant beyond that, and I'm sure I don't know now. But I am very
+fond of it."
+
+This interesting confession emboldened the visitor to ask if the poet
+considered 'James Lee's wife' quite guiltless in her husband's
+estrangement. "Well, I'm not sure," replied Mr. Browning; "I was always
+very fond of her, but I fancy she had not much tact, and did not quite
+know how to treat her husband. I think she worried him a little. But if
+you want to know any more," he continued, with a twinkle in his eye, "you
+had better ask the Browning Society,--you have heard of it, perhaps?"
+
+When Robert Barrett Browning purchased the Palazzo Rezzonico, the
+acquirement was a delight to his father, not unmixed with a trace of
+consternation, for it is one of the grandest and most imposing palaces in
+Italy. Up to 1758 it was occupied by Cardinal Rezzonico himself, when, at
+that date, he became Pope under the title of Clement XIII. This palace,
+built in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, commands an
+unparalleled situation on the Grand Canal, and the majestic structure of
+white marble, with its rich carvings, the baroque ornaments of its
+key-stones, its classic cornices and tripartite loggias, its columns and
+grand architectural lines, is remarked, even in Venice, the city of
+palaces, for its sumptuous magnificence. As Mr. Browning had before
+remarked to Mrs. Bronson, "Pen" was infatuated with Venice. It is equally
+true that much of the infatuation of the ethereal city for subsequent
+visitors was due in no small measure to the beautiful and reverent manner
+in which Robert Barrett Browning made this palace a very Valhalla of the
+wedded poets, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Here the son gathered
+every exquisite treasure associated with his mother, and when, three years
+later, his father breathed his last within this noble palace, the younger
+Browning added to the associations of his mother those, also, of his
+father's books, art, and intimate possessions. With his characteristic
+courtesy and generous consideration Mr. Barrett Browning permitted
+visitors, for many years, through his entire ownership of the palace, to
+visit and enjoy the significant collections, treasures which his taste and
+his love had there gathered.
+
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF ROBERT BARRETT BROWNING
+
+("PENINI"), AS A CHILD.
+
+Painted at Siena, by Hamilton Wild, 1859.]
+
+
+On the façade of the palace two stately entrances open upon the broad
+flight of marble steps that lead down to the water, and on the
+architraves are carved river-gods. In the spacious court was placed his
+own statue of "Dryope." Ascending one marble flight of the grand escalier,
+one entered a lofty apartment whose noble proportions and richness of
+effect were most impressive. The floor, of red marble, in its rich,
+Byzantine hue, harmonized with a richly painted ceiling, which was one
+celebrated in Venetian art. From this vast salon opened, through richly
+carved doors, a series of rooms, each made vital with the portraits,
+sketches, busts, and other memorials of the poets. There were Story's
+busts of Browning and of his wife; there was Robert Barrett Browning's
+bust of his father,--one of the most remarkable among portrait busts in
+contemporary art; the portraits of Robert and Elizabeth Browning painted
+by Gordigiani of Rome, about 1855; a lovely pastel of Mrs. Browning when
+she was a child, representing her as standing in a garden, holding up her
+apron filled with flowers; there was her little writing-desk, and other
+intimate personal mementoes about. The immense array of presentation
+copies from other authors to the poets made an interesting library of
+themselves, as did the various translations of their own poems into many
+languages. There was a portrait of Browning painted when a young man, with
+a troubadour cloak falling over his shoulders; and a most interesting
+portrait of Milsand, painted by Barrett Browning, as a gift to his father.
+
+There was also a picture of himself as a lad, the "Penini" of Siena days,
+mounted on his pony, and painted by Hamilton Wild (a Boston artist), in
+that most picturesque of hill-towns, during one of those summers that the
+Brownings and the Storys had passed in the haunts of Santa Caterina.
+
+By Mrs. Browning's little writing tablet was placed the last manuscript
+she had ever written; and on a table lay a German translation of "Aurora
+Leigh," with an inscription of presentation to Browning.
+
+From one of these salons, looking out on the Grand Canal, is an alcove,
+formerly used as the private chapel of the Rezzonico. It was all white and
+gold, with a Venetian window draped in the palest green plush, while on
+either side were placed tall vases encrusted with green. In this alcove
+Mr. Barrett Browning had caused to be inscribed, in golden letters,
+surrounded with traceries and arabesques in gold, a copy of the
+inscription that was composed by the poet, Tommaseo, and placed by the
+city of Florence on the wall of Casa Guidi, near the grand portal:
+
+  QUI SCRISSE E MORI
+  ELISABETTA BARRETT BROWNING
+  CHE IN CUORE DI DONNA CONCILIAVA
+  SCIENZA DI DOTTO E SPIRITO DI POETA
+  E FECE DEL SUO VERSO AUREO ANELLO
+  FRA ITALIA E INGHILTERRA
+  PONE QUESTO MEMORIA
+  FIRENZE GRATA
+  1861.
+
+
+On the first floor was the room in which the poet wrote when the guest of
+his son in the palace; a _sala_ empaneled with the most exquisite
+decorated alabaster, panels of which also formed the doors, and opening
+from this was his sleeping-room, also beautifully decorated.
+
+In one splendid _sala_, with rich mural decorations, and floor of black
+Italian marble, were many choice works of art, rare souvenirs, pictures of
+special claim to interest, wonderful tapestries, and almost, indeed, an
+_embarras de richesse_ of beauty.
+
+In 1906 Robert Barrett Browning sold the Rezzonico; and now, beside his
+_casa_ and studios in Asolo, he has one of the old Medici villas, near
+Florence,--"La Torre all' Antella," with a lofty tower, from which the
+view is one of the most commanding and fascinating in all Tuscany. The
+panorama includes all Florence, with her domes and campanile and towers;
+and the Fiesolean hills, with the old town picturesquely revealed among
+the trees and against the background of sky, and with numerous other
+villages and hamlets, and a mountain panorama of changing color always
+before the eye. Mr. Browning is one of the choicest of spirits, with all
+that culture and beauty of spiritual life that characterized his parents.
+He is a great linguist, and is one of the most interesting of men. No one
+knew his father, in that wonderful inner way, as did his son. He was
+twelve years old at the time of his mother's death, and from that period
+he was the almost constant companion of his father, until Browning's
+death, twenty-eight years later. Robert Barrett Browning has also
+purchased the massive Casa Guidi, thus fitly becoming the owner of the
+palace in which he was born, and that is forever enshrined in literary
+history and poetic romance. It is, also, one of those poetic sequences of
+life, that Casa Guidi and Palazzo Peruzzi, near each other, in the Via
+Maggiore in Florence, are respectively owned by Mr. Browning and the
+Marchesa Peruzzi di' Medici, under which stately title Mr. Story's
+daughter Edith, the childhood friend and companion of "Penini," is now
+known.
+
+After the return to London of Browning and his sister Sarianna, from St.
+Moritz, his constant letters to Mrs. Bronson again take up the story of a
+poet's days.
+
+In the early winter he thus writes to his cherished friend--the date being
+December 4, 1887:
+
+    "Now let us shut the gondola glasses (I forget the technical word) and
+    Talk, dear Friend! Here are your dear labors of love,--the letters and
+    enclosures, and here is my first day of leisure this long fortnight,
+    for, would you believe it? I have been silly enough to sit every
+    morning for three hours to one painter, who took an additional two
+    hours yesterday, in order to get done; before which exercise of
+    patience I had to sit to another gentleman, who will summon me again
+    in due time,--all this since my return from Venice and the _youthful
+    five_! However, when, two days ago, there was yet another application
+    to sit, the bear within the 'lion' came out, and I declined, as little
+    gruffly as I was able. And so the end is I can talk and enjoy
+    myself--even at a distance--with a friend as suddenly dear as all
+    hands from the clouds must needs be. I will not try and thank you for
+    what you know I so gratefully have accepted,--and shall keep forever,
+    I trust.
+
+    "Well, here is the Duke's letter; he is a man of few words, and less
+    protestation; but feels, as he should, your kindness, and will gladly
+    acknowledge it, should you come to England, and it seems that you may.
+    But what will Venice be without you next year, if we return there as
+    we hope to do?
+
+    "... Mrs. Bloomfield Moore passed through London some three weeks ago,
+    and at once wrote to me about what pictures of Robert's might be
+    visible? She at once bought the huge 'Delivery to the Secular Arm,'
+    for the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, and the 'Dinard Market
+    Woman' for herself, and this so spontaneously, and I did hear in a day
+    or two that she was convinced I had not asked half enough for the
+    pictures! She had inquired at the Gallery where the larger one was
+    exhibited, and they estimated its value at so much. I told her their
+    estimate was not mine, and that Robert was thoroughly remunerated--to
+    say nothing of what he would think of all this graciousness; and since
+    her departure I have had an extremely gratifying letter full of
+    satisfaction at her purchases,..."
+
+
+On the death of Lord Houghton, Mr. Browning had been prevailed upon to
+accept the office of Foreign Correspondent to the Royal Academy; he was
+much beloved by the Academicians, many of whom were among his familiar
+friends, and that his son was an artist endeared to him all art.
+
+To Mrs. Bronson Browning once remarked: "Do you know, dear friend, if the
+thing were possible, I would renounce all personal ambition and would
+destroy every line I ever wrote, if by so doing I could see fame and
+honors heaped on my Robert's head." Mrs. Bronson's comment on this was
+that in his son he saw the image of his wife, whom he adored,--"literally
+adored," she added.
+
+At the Academy banquets Browning was always an honored guest, and his
+nomination by the President to the post of Foreign Correspondent was
+promptly ratified by the Council.
+
+On the removal to DeVere Gardens, Mr. Browning took great pleasure in the
+arrangement of his home. His father's library of six thousand books was
+now unpacked, and, for the first time, he had space for them; many of the
+beautiful old carvings, chests, cabinets, bookcases, that he had brought
+from Florence, could in the new home be placed to advantage. The visitor,
+to-day, to Mr. Barrett Browning's Florentine villa will see many of these
+rich and elaborate furnishings, and the younger Browning will point out an
+immense sofa (that resembles a catafalque), with amused recollection of
+having once seen his father and Ruskin sitting side by side on it, "their
+feet dangling." From Venice the poet had brought home, first and last,
+many curious and beautiful things,--a silver lamp, old sconces from
+churches, and many things of which he speaks in his letters to Mrs.
+Bronson.
+
+The initial poem in "Asolando," entitled "Rosny," was written at the
+opening of the year 1888, and it was soon followed by "Beatrice Signorini"
+and "Flute-Music." In February he writes to George Murray Smith, his
+publisher, of his impulse to revise "Pauline," which had lain untouched
+for fifty years,--an impulse to "correct the most obvious faults ...
+letting the thoughts, such as they are, remain exactly as at first." It
+seems that the portrait, too, that is to accompany the volume does not
+quite please him, and he suggests slight changes. "Were Pen here," he
+says, "he could manage it all in a moment."
+
+This confidence was not undeserved. Richly gifted in many directions, a
+true child of the gods, Robert Barrett Browning has an almost marvelous
+gift in portraiture. He seems to be the diviner, the seer, as well as the
+artist, when transferring to canvas a face that interests him. The
+portrait of Milsand, to which allusion has before been made, and that of
+his father, painted in his Oxford robes, with "the old yellow book in his
+hand," which is in Balliol, are signal illustrations of his power in
+portraying almost the very mental processes of thought and feeling and
+kindling imagination,--all that goes to make up the creative life of art.
+
+He is fairly a connoisseur in literature, as well as in his own
+specialties of painting and sculpture; and the poetry of the elder
+Browning has no more critically appreciative reader than his son. Some
+volume of his father's is always at hand in his traveling; and he, like
+all Browning-lovers, can never open any volume of Robert Browning's
+without finding revealed to him new vistas of thought, renewed aspiration
+and resolve for all noble living, and infinite suggestiveness of spiritual
+achievement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+1888-1889
+
+  "On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven, a perfect round."
+
+  "O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again,
+      And with God be the rest!"
+
+
+"ASOLANDO"--LAST DAYS IN DEVERE GARDENS--LETTERS OF BROWNING AND
+    TENNYSON--VENETIAN LINGERINGS AND FRIENDS--MRS. BRONSON'S CHOICE
+    CIRCLE--BROWNING'S LETTERS TO MRS. BRONSON--ASOLO--"IN RUBY, EMERALD,
+    CHRYSOPRAS"--LAST MEETING OF BROWNING AND STORY--IN PALAZZO
+    REZZONICO--LAST MEETING WITH DR. CORSON--HONORED BY WESTMINSTER
+    ABBEY--A CROSS OF VIOLETS--CHORAL MUSIC TO MRS. BROWNING'S POEM, "THE
+    SLEEP"--"AND WITH GOD BE THE REST."
+
+
+In the winter of 1887-1888 Mr. Browning wrote "Rosny," which follows the
+"Prologue" in "Asolando," and soon after the "Beatrice Signorini" and
+"Flute Music." He also completely revised his poems for the new edition
+which his publishers were issuing in monthly volumes, the works completed
+in July. "Parleyings," which had appeared in 1887, had, gloriously or
+perilously as may be, apparently taken all the provinces of learning, if
+not all the kingdoms of earth, for its own; for its themes ranged over
+Philosophy, Politics, Love, and Art, as well as Alchemy, and one knows not
+what; but its power and vigor reveal that there had been no fading of the
+divine fire. The poet made a few minor changes in "The Inn Album," but
+with that exception he agreed with his friend and publisher, that no
+further alterations of any importance were required. Mr. Browning's
+relations with his publishers were always harmonious and mutually
+gratifying. Such a relation is, to any author, certainly not the least
+among the factors of his happiness or of his power of work, and to
+Browning, George Murray Smith was his highly prized friend and counselor,
+as well as publisher, whose generous courtesies and admirable judgment had
+more than once even served him in ways quite outside those of literature.
+
+In the late summer of 1888 Browning and his sister fared forth for
+Primiero, to join the Barrett Brownings, with whom the poet concurred in
+regarding this little hill-town as one of the most beautiful of places,
+his favorite Asolo always excepted. "Primiero is far more beautiful than
+Gressoney, far more than Saint-Pierre de Chartreuse," he wrote to a
+friend: "with the magnificence of the mountains that, morning and evening,
+are literally transmuted to gold." In letters or conversation, as well as
+in his verse, Browning's love of color was always in evidence. "He dazzles
+us with scarlet, and crimson, and rubies, and the poppy's 'red
+effrontery,'" said an English critic; "with topaz, amethyst, and the glory
+of gold, and makes the sonnet ache with the luster of blue." When, in the
+haunting imagery of memory pictures, after leaving Florence, he reverted
+to the gardens of Isa Blagden, on Bellosguardo, the vision before him was
+of "the herbs in red flower, and the butterflies on the wall under the
+olive trees." For Browning was the poet of every thrill and intensity of
+life--the poet and prophet of the dawn, not of the dark; the herald who
+announced the force of the positive truth and ultimate greatness; never
+the interpreter of the mere negations of life. The splendor of color
+particularly appealed to him, thrilling every nerve; and when driving with
+Mrs. Bronson in Asolo he would beg that the coachman would hasten, if
+there were fear of missing the sunset pageant from the loggia of "La
+Mura." In "Pippa Passes," how he painted the splendor of sunrise
+pouring into her chamber, and in numberless other of his poems is this
+fascination of color for him revealed.
+
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF ROBERT BROWNING IN 1865.
+
+Painted by George Frederick Watts, R.A.
+
+In the possession of the National Portrait Gallery, London.]
+
+
+Under the date of August, 1888, the poet writes to Mrs. Bronson:
+
+    DEAREST,--We have at last, only yesterday, fully determined on joining
+    the couple at Primiero, and, when the heats abate, going on to Venice
+    for a short stay. May the stay be with you as heretofore? I don't feel
+    as if I could go elsewhere, or do otherwise, although in case of any
+    arrangements having been made that stand in the way, there is the
+    obvious Hôtel Suisse. I suppose at need there could be found a
+    messenger to poor Guiseppina, whose misfortunes I commiserate. You
+    know exactly how much and how little we want. But if I am to get any
+    good out of my visit I must lead the quietest of lives....
+
+    We propose setting out next Monday, the 13th,--Basle, Milan, Padua,
+    Treviso, Primiero, by the week's end.
+
+    I have been nearly eleven weeks in town, with an exceptional four
+    days' visit to Oxford; and hard social work all the time, indeed, up
+    to the latest, when, three weeks ago, I found it impossible to keep
+    going. Don't think that the kindness which sometimes oppresses me
+    while in town, forgets me afterward; I have pouring invitations to the
+    most attractive places in England, Ireland, Scotland,--but "c'est
+    admirable, mais ce n'est pas la paix." May I count on the "paix" where
+    I so much enjoyed it? I hear with delight that Edith will be with you
+    again,--that completes the otherwise incompleteness. Yes, the
+    Rezzonico is what you Americans call a "big thing."... But the
+    interest I take in its acquisition is different altogether from what
+    accompanied the earlier attempt. At most, I look on approvingly, as by
+    all accounts I am warranted in doing, but there an end....
+
+    ... So, dearest friend, "a rivederci!" Give my love to Edith and tell
+    her I hope in her keeping her kindness for me, spite of the claims on
+    it of all the others. And my sister, not one word of her? Somehow you
+    must know her more thoroughly than poor, battered me, tugged at and
+    torn to pieces, metaphorically, by so many sympathizers, real or
+    pretended. She wants change, probably more than I do. And, but for
+    her, I believe I should continue here, with the gardens for my place
+    of healing. How she will enjoy the sight of you, if it may be! Tell me
+    what is to be hoped, or feared, or despaired of, at Pen's address,
+    whatever it may be. And remember me as ever most affectionately yours,
+
+    ROBERT BROWNING.
+
+
+The succeeding letter, written from Albergo Gille, Primiero, tells the
+story of a rather trying journey, what with the heat and his
+indisposition, but on finding himself bestowed at Primiero he is
+"absolutely well again," and anticipating his Venice: "what a Venice it
+would be," he says, "if I went elsewhere than to the beloved friend who
+calls me so kindly!" And he adds:
+
+    "My stay will be short, but sweet in every sense of the word if I find
+    her in good health, and in all other respects just as I left her; 'no
+    change' meaning what it does to me who remember her goodness so well.
+    It will be delightful to meet Edith again, if only it may be that she
+    arrives while we are yet with you, even before, perhaps.
+
+    "Can I tell you anything about my journey except that it was so
+    agreeable an one? On the first evening as I stepped outside our
+    carriage for a moment, I caught sight of a well-known face. 'Dr.
+    Butler, surely.' You have heard of his marriage the other day to a
+    learnedest of young ladies, who beat all the men last year at Greek.
+    He insisted on introducing me to her; I had seen her once before
+    without undergoing that formality and willingly I shook hands with a
+    sprightly young person ... pretty, and grand-daughterly, she is,
+    however, only twenty-six years his junior. Then, this happened; the
+    little train from Montebelluna to Feltre was crowded--we could find no
+    room except in a smoking carriage--wherein I observed a good-natured,
+    elderly gentleman, an Italian, I took for granted. Presently he said,
+    'Can I offer you an English paper?' 'What, are you English?' 'Oh, yes,
+    and I know you,--who are going to see your son at Primiero.' 'Why,
+    who can you be?' 'One who has seen you often.' 'Not surely, Mr.
+    Malcolm?' 'Well, nobody else.' So ensued an affectionate greeting, he
+    having been the guardian angel of Pen in all his chafferings about the
+    purchase of the palazzo. He gave me abundance of information, and
+    satisfied me on many points. I had been anxious to write and thank him
+    as he deserved, but this provided an earlier and more graceful way,
+    for a beginning at least.
+
+    "Pen is at work on a pretty picture, a peasant girl whom he picked up
+    in the neighborhood, and his literal treatment stands him in good
+    stead; he is reproducing her cleverly, at any rate, he takes pains
+    enough."
+
+
+Towards the end of September they joined in Venice the "beloved friend,"
+whose genius for friendship only made each sojourn with her more beautiful
+than the preceding, if that which was perfect could receive an added
+degree. "It was curious to see," wrote Mrs. Bronson, "how on each of his
+arrivals in Venice he took up his life precisely as he had left it."
+Browning and his sister frequently went on Sundays to the Waldensian
+chapel, where in this autumn there was a preacher of great eloquence.
+Every morning, after their early coffee, the poet was off for a brisk
+walk, and after returning he busied himself with his letters and
+newspapers, his mail always containing more or less letters from strangers
+and admirers, some of whom solicited autographs, which, so far as
+possible, he always granted. Mrs. Bronson has somewhere noted that when
+asked, _viva voce_, for an autograph, he would look puzzled, and say "I
+don't like to always write the same verse, but I can only remember one,"
+and he would then proceed to copy "All that I know of a certain star,"
+which, however it "dartles red and blue," he knew nothing of save that it
+had "opened its soul" to him. Arthur Rogers, delivering the Bohlen
+lectures for 1909, compared Browning with Isaiah, in his lecture on
+"Poetry and Prophecy," and he instanced this "star" which "opened its
+soul" to the poet, as attesting that Browning, like Isaiah, could do no
+more than search depths of life.
+
+The Palazzo Giustiniani-Recanti was a fitting haunt for a poet. Casa
+Alvisi, adjoining, in which Mrs. Bronson lived, looked out, as has been
+noted, on Santa Maria della Salute, which was on the opposite side of the
+Grand Canal; but the Giustiniani palace, dating to the fifteenth century,
+had its outlook through Gothic windows to the south, on a court and garden
+of romantic loveliness. The perfect tact of their hostess left the poet
+and his sister entirely free to come and go as they pleased, and at midday
+they took their déjeuner together, ordering by preference Italian dishes,
+as rissotto, macaroni, and fruits, especially figs and grapes. They
+enjoyed these _tête-à-tête_ repasts, talking and laughing all the while,
+and then, about three every afternoon they joined Mrs. Bronson and her
+daughter for the gondola trip. The hostess records that the poet's
+invariable response to the question as to where they should go would be:
+"Anywhere, all is beautiful, only let it be toward the Lido." While both
+the poet and his sister were scrupulously prompt in returning all calls of
+ceremony, they were glad to evade formal visits so far as possible; and
+the absolute freedom with which their hostess surrounded them was grateful
+beyond words. "The thought deeply impressed me," said Mrs. Bronson, "that
+one who had lifted so many souls above the mere necessity for living in a
+troublesome world deserved from those permitted to approach him their best
+efforts to brighten his personal life.... The little studies for his
+comfort, the small cares entailed upon me during the too brief days and
+weeks when his precious life was partly entrusted to my care, might seem
+to count for little in an existence far removed from that of an ordinary
+man; yet, as a fact, he was glad and grateful for the smallest attention.
+He was appreciative of all things. He never regarded gratitude as a
+burden, as less generous minds are apt to do," continued Mrs. Bronson.
+
+
+[Illustration: MRS. ARTHUR BRONSON
+
+From a painting by Ellen Montalba, in Asolo
+
+  In the possession of Edittá, Contessa Rucellai (_née_ Bronson),
+  Palazzo Rucellai, Florence.]
+
+
+One of his greatest enjoyments in Venice was to wander with Edith Bronson
+through the Venetian _calli_. "Edith is the best cicerone in the world,"
+he would remark; "she knows everything and teaches me all she knows. There
+never was such a guide." The young girl indeed knew her Venice as a
+devotee knows his illuminated missal, and her lovely vivacity and
+sweetness must have invested her presence with the same charm that is felt
+to-day in the Contessa Rucellai, in her Florentine palace, for Miss
+Bronson, it may be said _en passant_, became the wife of one of the most
+eminent Italian nobles, the Rucellai holding peculiar claim to distinction
+even among the princely houses of Florence.
+
+From these gondola excursions they always returned about five, and
+sometimes the poet would join the group around Mrs. Bronson's tea-table,
+conversing with equal facility in French, German, or Italian, and to their
+delight would say, "Edith, dear, you may give me a cup of tea." But as a
+rule he considered this beverage as too unhygienic at that hour, and
+whenever with an "Excuse me, please," he sought his own apartments, he was
+never questioned for his reasons. "It was enough that he wished it," said
+his hostess. He and Miss Browning always appeared promptly for dinner,
+which was at half-past seven in Casa Alvisi. The poet was scrupulous about
+his evening dress; and Miss Browning, Mrs. Bronson relates, was habitually
+clad "in rich gowns of a somber tint, with quaint, antique jewels, and
+each day with a different French cap of daintiest make."
+
+The evenings seem to have been idyllic. Browning would often read aloud,
+and he loved to improvise on an old spinnet standing in a dim recess in
+one of the salons. The great Venetian families were usually in
+_villeggiatura_ at the time when Browning was in Venice, so that he met
+comparatively few of them; it was this freedom from social obligations
+that contributed so much to the restful character of his sojourns, and
+enabled him to give himself up to that ineffable enchantment of Venice. He
+made a few friends, however, among Mrs. Bronson's brilliant circle, and
+one of the notable figures among these was the old Russian noble and
+diplomat, Prince Gagarin, who, born in Rome, had been educated in his own
+country, and had represented Russia at the courts of Athens,
+Constantinople, and Turin. Mrs. Bronson has told the story of one evening
+when the poet and the old diplomat indulged in a mutual tournament of
+music; "first one would sing, and then the other," Browning recalling
+folk-songs of Russia which he had caught up in his visit to that country
+fifty years before.
+
+Another of Mrs. Bronson's inner circle, which included the Principessa
+Montenegro, the mother of Queen Elena, and other notable figures, was the
+Contessa Marcello, whom both the poet and his sister greatly liked; and
+one radiant day they all accepted an invitation to visit the Contessa at
+her villa at Mogliano, a short railway trip from Venice. The poet seemed
+to much enjoy the brief journey, and at the station was the Contessa with
+her landau, in which Mrs. Bronson, the poet, and his sister were seated,
+while Miss Bronson rode one of the ponies on which some of the young
+people had come down to greet the guests. After luncheon the Contessa,
+with her young daughter, the Contessina, led their guests out in the
+grounds to a pergola where coffee was served, and which commanded a vista
+of a magnificent avenue of copper beeches, whose great branches met and
+interlaced overhead. The Contessa was the favorite lady of honor at the
+court of Queen Margherita, and she interested Mr. Browning very much by
+speaking of her beloved royal mistress, and showing him some of the
+handwriting of the Queen, which he thought characteristically graceful
+and forcible. The Contessina and Miss Bronson, with others of the younger
+people, seated themselves in rustic chairs to listen to every word from
+the poet; and a Venetian sculptor, who was there, concealed himself in the
+shrubbery and made a sketch of Browning. The Contessina, who, like all the
+young Italian girls of high breeding and culture, kept an album of foreign
+poetry, brought hers, and pleadingly asked Mr. Browning if he would write
+in it for her. As usual, for the reasons already given, he (perforce)
+wrote "My Star," and when the girl looked at it she exclaimed that it was
+one of her old favorites, and showed him where she had already copied it
+into the book.
+
+At the station, when they drove down again to take the returning train,
+one of the young _literati_ of Italy was there, and the Contessa
+introduced him to Browning, saying that the young man had already achieved
+distinction in letters. Mr. Browning talked with him most cordially, and
+after they were on their way he said that the young writer "seemed to be a
+youth of promise, and that he hoped he should meet him again." But when
+they did hear of him again it was as the lecturer of a series of talks on
+Zola, "which, as may be supposed," notes Mrs. Bronson, "the poet expressed
+no desire to attend." The marvelous days of that unearthly loveliness of
+Venice in the early autumn flew by, and Mrs. Bronson's guest returned to
+DeVere Gardens. To his hostess the poet wrote, under date of DeVere
+Gardens, December 15, 1888:
+
+    DEAREST FRIEND,--I may just say that and no more; for what can I say?
+    I shall never have your kindness out of my thoughts,--and you never
+    will forget me, I know. We shall please you by telling you our journey
+    was quite prosperous, and wonderfully fine weather, till it ended in
+    grim London, and its fog and cold. (At Basle there was cold, but the
+    sun made up for everything.) We altered our plans so far as to sleep
+    and to stay through a long day at Basle, visiting the museum,
+    cathedral, etc., and went on by night train in a sleeping-car, of
+    which we were the sole occupants, to Calais, directly. At Dover the
+    officials were prepared for us, would not look at the luggage, and
+    were very helpful as well as courteous; and at London orders had been
+    given to treat us with all possible good nature. They wouldn't let us
+    open any box but that where the lamp was packed; offered to take our
+    word for its weight, and finally asked me, "since there were the three
+    portions, would I accept the weight of the little vessel at bottom as
+    that of the other two?" "Rather," as Pen says, so they declined to
+    weigh the whole lamp, charging less than a quarter of what it does
+    weigh, and even then requiring assurance that I was "quite satisfied."
+    We were to be looked after first of all the passengers, and so got
+    away early enough to find things at home in excellent order.... I send
+    a hasty line to try to express the impossible,--how much I love you,
+    and how deeply I feel all your great kindness. Every hour of the day I
+    miss you, and wish I were with you and dear Edith again, in beloved
+    Casa Alvisi.
+
+
+These letters to Mrs. Bronson reveal Browning the man as do no other
+records in literature. The consciousness of being perfectly understood,
+and the realization of the delicacy and beauty of the character of Mrs.
+Bronson made this choice companionship one of the greatest joys in
+Browning's life. It may, perhaps, as well be interpolated here that a
+large package of the fascinating letters from Robert Browning to Mrs.
+Bronson, from which these extracts are made, were placed at the disposal
+of the writer of this volume by the generous kindness of Mrs. Bronson's
+daughter, the Contessa Rucellai, and with the slight exception of a few
+paragraphs used by Mrs. Bronson herself (in two charming papers that she
+wrote on Browning), they have never before been drawn upon for
+publication.
+
+Under the date of January 4, 1889, the poet writes to Mrs. Bronson:
+
+    No, dearest friend, I can well believe you think of me sometimes, even
+    oft-times, for in what place, or hour, or hour of the day, can you
+    fail to be reminded of some piece of kindness done by you and received
+    by me during those memorable three months when you cared for me and my
+    sister constantly, and were so successful in your endeavor to make us
+    perfectly happy. Depend on it, neither I nor she move about this house
+    (which has got to be less familiar to us through our intimate
+    acquaintance with yours),--neither of us forget you for a moment, nor
+    are we without your name on our lips much longer, when we sit quietly
+    down at home of an evening, and talk over the pleasantest of pleasant
+    days....
+
+    The sole invitation I can but accept this morning is to the Farewell
+    dinner about to be given by the Lord Mayor to Mr. Phelps; that I am
+    bound to attend. I have not seen him or Mrs. Phelps yet; but they
+    receive this afternoon, and if I am able I shall go. You will wish to
+    know that all our articles have arrived safely, and more expeditiously
+    than we had expected. The tables, lanterns, etc., are very decidedly
+    approved of, and fit into the proper corners very comfortably; so that
+    everywhere will be an object reminding us, however unnecessarily, of
+    Venice. Your ink-stand brightens the table by my hand; the lamp will
+    probably stand beside it; while Tassini tempts me to dip into him
+    every time I pass the book-case. I may never see the loved city again,
+    but where in the house will not some little incident of the then
+    unparalleled months, wake up memories of the gondola, and the
+    stopping, here and there, and the fun at Morchio's; the festive return
+    home, behind broad-backed Luigi; then the tea, and the dinner, and
+    Gargarin's crusty old port flavor, and the Dyers, and Ralph Curtis,
+    and O, the delightful times! Of Edith I say nothing because she has
+    herself, the darling! written to me, the surprise and joy of that! And
+    I mean to have a talk with her on paper, alas! my very self, and
+    induce her not to let me have the last word. Oh, my two beloveds I
+    must see Venice again; it would be heart-breaking to believe
+    otherwise. Of course I entered into all your doings, the pretty things
+    you got, and prettier, I am sure, you gave. And I was sorry, so sorry,
+    to hear that naughty Edith, no darling, for half a second, now I think
+    of it,--did not figure in the tableaux. I hope and believe, however,
+    she did dance in the New Year. Bid her avoid this cold-catching and
+    consequent headache. Do write, dearest friend, keep me _au courant_ of
+    everything. No minutest of your doings but is full of interest to me
+    and Sarianna. But I am at the paper's extreme edge. Were it elephant
+    folio (is there such a size?) it would not hold all I have in my
+    heart, and head, too, of love for you and "our Edie;" so, simply, God
+    bless you, my beloveds!
+
+    ROBERT BROWNING.
+
+    Princess Montenegro sent me by way of a New Year's card,--what do you
+    think? A pretty photograph of the Rezzonico. The young lady was
+    equally mindful of Sarianna.
+
+    R. B.
+
+
+To Miss Edith Bronson the poet wrote, as follows:
+
+    DEAREST EDIE,--I did not reply to your letter at once for this reason;
+    an immediate answer might seem to imply I expected such a delightful
+    surprise every day, or week, or even month; and it was wise economy to
+    let you know that I can go on without a second piece of kindness till
+    you again have such a good impulse and yield to it--by no means
+    binding yourself to give me regularly such a pleasure. You shall owe
+    me nothing, but be as generous as is consistent with justice to other
+    people.... I did not go out except to the complimentary farewell
+    dinner our Lord Mayor gave to Mr. Phelps which nobody could be excused
+    from attending. We all grieved at the loss, especially of Mrs. Phelps,
+    who endeared herself to everybody. Both of them were sorry to go from
+    us....
+
+
+The next letter reveals anew Browning's always thoughtful courtesy in
+bespeaking kindness for mutual friends, as he writes:
+
+    "There is arranged to be a sort of expedition [to Venice] of young
+    Toynbee Hall men, headed by Alberto Ball, the son of our common
+    friend, for the purpose of studying, not merely amusing, themselves
+    with,--the beloved city. Well as the Balls are entitled to say that
+    they know you, still, the young and clever Ball chooses to wish me to
+    beg your kind notice; and I suppose that his companions are to be
+    noticed also,--of what really appears to be a praiseworthy effort
+    after self-instruction. Will you smile on him when he calls on you?
+    for his father's sake, who is anxious about the scheme's success? I
+    have bespoken Pen's assistance, and he will do the honors of the
+    Rezzonico with alacrity, I have no doubt."
+
+
+[Illustration: MISS EDITH BRONSON,
+
+(NOW CONTESSA RUCELLAI)
+
+From a Water-Color by Passini, Venice, 1883.]
+
+
+In almost every life that is strongly individualized those who look back
+after it has passed from visible sight cannot but recognize how rhythmic
+are the sequences that have characterized its last months on earth. If the
+person in question had actually known the day on which he should be called
+away, he would hardly have done other than he did. It is as if the spirit
+had some prescience, not realized by the ordinary consciousness, but still
+controlling its conduct of the last time allotted here. With this last
+year of Robert Browning's life, this unseen leading is especially obvious.
+In the spring he had revised his poetic work; he had passed Commemoration
+week at Oxford, as he loved to do; he had passed much of the time with his
+friend, the Master of Balliol, and among his last expressions on leaving
+Oxford was "Jowett knows how I love him." He was also in Cambridge, and
+Edmund Gosse has charmingly recalled the way in which he dwelt,
+retrospectively, on his old Italian days.
+
+In June, also, he paid his usual visit to Lord Albemarle (the last
+survivor of those who fought at Waterloo), and in that month he wrote to
+Professor Knight, who was about to exchange the Chair of Philosophy at the
+University of Glasgow for that of Literature at St. Andrews, saying: "It
+is the right order; Philosophy first, and Poetry, which is its highest
+outcome, afterward, and much harm has been done by reversing the usual
+process."
+
+The letters to Mrs. Bronson tell much of the story of these days. In one,
+dated June 10, 1899, he gives this reminiscence of Asolo:
+
+    DEAREST FRIEND,--It was indeed a joy to get your letter. I know that a
+    change of place would be desirable for you, darling Edie told me so,
+    but I fancied you would not leave Venice so soon....
+
+    ... One thing is certain, that if I do go to Venice, and abide at the
+    Rezzonico, every day during the visit I shall pass over to the beloved
+    Alvisi and entirely beloved friends there, who are to me in Venice
+    what San Marco is to the Piazza. Enough of this now, and something
+    about Asolo.
+
+    When I first found out Asolo, I lodged at the main hotel in the
+    Square,--an old, large inn of the most primitive kind. The ceiling of
+    my bed-room was traversed by a huge crack, or rather cleft, caused by
+    the earthquake last year; the sky was as blue as blue could be, and we
+    were all praying in the fields, expecting the town to tumble in. On
+    the morning after my arrival, I walked up to the Rocca; and on
+    returning to breakfast I mentioned it to the land-lady, wherein a
+    respectable middle-aged man, sitting by, said: "You have done what I,
+    born here, never thought of doing." I took long walks every day, and
+    carried away a lively recollection of the general beauty, but I did
+    not write a word of 'Pippa Passes'--that idea struck me when walking
+    in an English wood, and I made use of Italian memories.
+
+    I used to dream of seeing Asolo in the distance and making vain
+    attempts to reach it--repeatedly dreamed this for many a year. And
+    when I found myself once more in Italy, with Sarianna, I went there
+    straight from Venice. We found the old inn lying in ruins, a new one
+    (being) built, to take its place,--I suppose that which you see now.
+    We went to a much inferior albergo, the best then existing, and were
+    roughly, but pleasantly, entertained for a week, as I say. People told
+    me the number of inhabitants had greatly increased, and things seemed
+    generally more ordinary and life-like. I am happy that you like it so
+    much. When I got my impression, Italy was new to me....
+
+    ... I shall go to Oxford for Commemoration, and stay a week for
+    another affair,--a "gaudy" dinner given to the magnates of Eton.
+
+
+To the forthcoming collection, entitled "Asolando," the group of poems
+dedicated to Mrs. Bronson, the poet alludes as follows:
+
+    ... By the way the new little book of poems that was to associate your
+    name with mine, remains unprinted. For why? The publishers think its
+    announcement might panic-strike the purchasers of the new edition, who
+    have nearly enough of me for some time to come! Never mind. We shall
+    have our innings.
+
+    Bless you ever and your Edith; keep me in mind as your very own always
+    affectionate
+
+    R. B.
+
+
+The poet's love for Asolo is revealed in the following letter to Mrs.
+Bronson:
+
+    29, DEVERE GARDENS, W.
+
+    July 17,'89.
+
+    DEAREST FRIEND,--I shall delight in fancying your life at Asolo, my
+    very own of all Italian towns; your house built into the wall, and the
+    neighboring castle ruins, and the wonderful outlook; on a clear day
+    you can see much further than Venice. I mentioned some of the dear
+    spots pointed out to my faith as ruins, while what wants no faith at
+    all,--the green hills surrounding you, Posagno close by,--how you will
+    enjoy it! And do go there and get all the good out of the beautiful
+    place I used to dream about so often in old days, till at last I saw
+    it again, and the dreams stopped,--to begin, again, I trust, with a
+    figure there never associated with Asolo before. Shall I ever see you
+    there in no dream? I cannot say; I feel inclined to leave England this
+    next autumn that is so soon to overtake us....
+
+    Pen stays a few days longer in Paris to complete his picture. He had
+    declined to compete at the Exposition, but has been awarded a Medal
+    (3rd), which, however, enables him to dispense with the permission of
+    the Salon that his works shall be received. Julian Story gets also a
+    medal of the same class. Pen reports stupendously of the Paris
+    show....
+
+    ... Well, you know we have been entertaining and entertained by the
+    Shah. I met him at Lord Roseberry's, and before dinner was presented
+    to him, when he asked me in French: _"Êtes-vous poëte?" "On s'est
+    permis de le dire quelquefois." "Et vous avez fait des livres?"
+    "Plusieurs livres?" "Trop de livres." "Voulez-vous m'en faire le
+    cadeau d'un de vos livres afin que je puisse me ressouvenir de vous?"
+    "Avec plaisir."_ Accordingly I went next day to a shop where they keep
+    them ready bound, and chose a brightly covered "selection."...
+
+    All the outing I have accomplished was a week at Oxford, which was a
+    quiet one,--Jowett's health, I fear, not allowing the usual invitation
+    of guests to Balliol. I had all the more of him, to my great
+    satisfaction.
+
+    Sarianna is quite in her ordinary health, but tired as we cannot but
+    be. She is away from the house, but I know how much she would have me
+    put in of love in what I would say for her.... Did you get a little
+    book by Michael Field? "Long Ago," a number of poems written to
+    _innestare_ what fragmentary lines and words we have left of Sappho's
+    poetry. I want to know particularly how they strike you.
+
+
+To Tennyson for his eightieth birthday Mr. Browning writes:
+
+    To-morrow is your birthday, indeed a memorable one. Let me say I
+    associate myself with the universal pride of our country in your
+    glory, and in its hope that for many and many a year we may have your
+    very self among us; secure that your poetry will be a wonder and
+    delight to all those appointed to come after; and for my own part let
+    me further say, I have loved you dearly. May God bless you and yours!
+    I have had disastrous experience.... Admiringly and Affectionately
+    yours,
+
+    ROBERT BROWNING.[17]
+
+
+To this letter Lord Tennyson replied:
+
+    ALDWORTH, August, 1889.
+
+    MY DEAR BROWNING,--I thank you with my whole heart and being for your
+    noble and affectionate letter, and with my whole heart and being I
+    return your friendship. To be loved and appreciated by so great and
+    powerful a nature as yours will be a solace to me, and lighten my dark
+    hours during the short time of life that is left to us.
+
+    Ever Yours,
+
+    A. TENNYSON.
+
+
+The poet found himself again longing for his Italy. To Mrs. Bronson, under
+date of August 8, he wrote, referring to a letter of hers received two
+days before, crowned with "the magical stamp of Asolo":
+
+    "... So a fancy springs up which shall have utterance as just a fancy.
+    The time has come for determining on some change of place, if change
+    is ever to be, and, I repeat, just a fancy, if I were inclined to join
+    you at Asolo, say a fortnight hence, could good rooms be procurable
+    for Sarianna and myself? Now as you value--I won't say my love, but my
+    respect and esteem--understand me literally, and give me only the
+    precise information I want--not one half-syllable about accommodation
+    in your house!
+
+    "I ask because when I and Sarianna went there years ago, the old
+    Locanda on the Square lay in ruins, and we put up at a rougher inn in
+    the town's self. I dare say the principal hotel is rebuilt by this
+    time, or rather has grown somewhat old. Probably you are there indeed.
+    Just tell us exactly. Pen is trying his best to entice us his way,
+    which means to Primiero and Venice; but the laziness of age is
+    subduing me, and how I shrink from the 'middle passage,'--all that day
+    and night whirling from London to Basle, with the eleven or twelve
+    hours to Milan. Milan opens on Paradise, but the getting to Milan!
+    Perhaps I shall turn northward and go to Scotland after all. Still,
+    dear and good one, tell me what I ask. After the requisite information
+    you will please tell me accurately how you are, how that wicked
+    gad-a-bout, Edith, is, and where; and what else you can generously
+    afford of news,--news Venetian, I mean...."
+
+
+Later the poet writes:
+
+    "... I trust that as few clouds as may be may trouble the blue of our
+    month at Asolo; I shall bring your book full of verses for a final
+    overhauling on the spot where, when I first saw it, inspiration seemed
+    to steam up from the very ground.
+
+    "And so Edith is (I conjecture, I hope, rightly) to be with you; won't
+    I show her the little ridge in the ruin where one talks to the echo to
+    greatest advantage."
+
+
+From Milan Browning wrote to Mrs. Bronson:
+
+    DEAREST FRIEND,--It is indeed a delight to expect a meeting so soon.
+    Be good and mindful of how simple our tastes and wants are, and how
+    they have been far more than satisfied by the half of what you
+    provided to content them. I shall have nothing to do but to enjoy your
+    company, not even the little business of improving my health since
+    that seems perfect. I hear you do not walk as in the old days. I count
+    upon setting that right again. O Venezia, benedetta!
+
+
+It was with greater enjoyment, apparently, than ever before even, that Mr.
+Browning turned to the Asolo of his "Pippa Passes" and "Sordello." Mrs.
+Bronson, in her brilliant and sympathetic picturing of the poet, speaks of
+his project "to raise a tower like Pippa's near a certain property in
+Asolo, where he and Miss Browning might pass at least a part of every
+year." The "certain property," to which Mrs. Bronson so modestly alludes,
+was her own place, "La Mura." The tower has since been erected by the
+poet's son, and the dream is thus fulfilled, though the elder Browning did
+not live to see it. Mrs. Bronson describes his enjoyment of nature in this
+lovely little hill-town,--"the ever-changing cloud shadows on the plain,
+the ranges of many-tinted mountains in the distance, and the fairy-like
+outline of the blue Euganean Hills, which form in part the southern
+boundary of the vast Campagna." Browning would speak of the associations
+which these hills bear with the names of Shelley and Byron.
+
+Across the deep ravine from La Mura a ruined tower was all that remained
+of the villa of Queen Catarina Cornaro, who, when she lost Cyprus, retired
+to Asolo; and in Browning's dedication to Mrs. Bronson of his "Asolando,"
+he ascribes the title to Cardinal Bembo, the secretary of Queen Catarina.
+Mr. Browning loved to recall the traditions of that poetic little court,
+which for two decades was held within those walls, whose decay was fairly
+hidden by the wealth of flowers that embowered them. Of his own project he
+would talk, declaring that he would call it "Pippa's Tower," and that it
+should be so built that from it he could see Venice every day. He
+playfully described the flag-signals that should aid communication between
+"Pippa's Tower" and Casa Alvisi. "A telephone is too modern," he said; and
+explained that when he asked his friend to dine the flag should be
+blue,--her favorite color; and if her answer was yes, her flag should be
+the same color; or if no, her flag should be red. This last visit of the
+poet to his city of dream and vision seemed to Mrs. Bronson one of
+unalloyed pleasure. "To think that I should be here again!" he more than
+once exclaimed, as if with an unconscious recognition that these weeks
+were to complete the cycle of his life on earth. Asolo is thirty-four
+miles from Venice, and it is within easy driving distance of Possagno, the
+native place of Canova, in whose memory the town has a museum filled with
+his works and casts. "Pen must see this," remarked Mr. Browning, as he
+lingered over the statues and groups and tombs. Mrs. Bronson records that
+one day on returning from a drive to Bassano the poet was strangely
+silent, and no one spoke; finally he announced that he had written a poem
+since they left Bassano. In response to an exclamation of surprise he
+said: "Oh, it's all in my head, but I shall write it out presently." His
+hostess asked if he would not even say what inspired it, to which he
+returned:
+
+"Well, the birds twittering in the trees suggested it. You know I don't
+like women to wear those things in their bonnets." The poem in question
+proved to be "The Lady and the Painter."
+
+Mr. Browning took the greatest enjoyment in the view from Mrs. Bronson's
+loggia. "Here," he would say, "we can enjoy beauty without fatigue, and be
+protected from sun, wind, and rain." His hostess has related that its
+charm made him often break his abstemious habit of refusing the usual five
+o'clock refreshment, and that he "loved to hear the hissing urn," and when
+occasionally accepting a cup of tea and a biscuit would say, "I think I am
+the better for this delicious tea, after all."
+
+Every afternoon at three they all went to drive, exploring the region in
+all directions. The driving in Asolo seemed to charm him as did the
+gondola excursions in Venice. "He observed everything," said Mrs. Bronson,
+"hedges, trees, the fascination of the little river Musone, the great
+_carri_ piled high with white and purple grapes. He removed his hat in
+returning the salutation of a priest, and touched his hat in returning the
+salutation of the poorest peasant, who, after the manner of the country,
+lifted his own to greet the passing stranger. 'I always salute the
+church,' Mr. Browning would say; 'I respect it.'"
+
+All his life Browning was an early riser. In Asolo, as elsewhere, he began
+his day with a cold bath at seven, and at eight he and his sister sat down
+to their simple breakfast, their hostess keeping no such heroic hours.
+Mrs. Bronson had adopted the foreign fashion of having her light breakfast
+served in her room, and her mornings were given to her wide correspondence
+and her own reading and study. She was a most accomplished and scholarly
+woman, whose goodness of heart and charm of manner were paralleled by her
+range of intellectual interests and her grasp of affairs.
+
+After breakfasting Browning and his sister, inseparable companions always,
+would start off on their wanderings over the hills. The poet was keenly
+interested in searching out the points of interest of his early years in
+Asolo; the "echo," the remembered views, the vista whose fascination still
+remained for him. From the ruined _rocca_ that crowned the hill, the view
+comprised all the violet-hued plain, stretching away to Padua, Vicenzo,
+Bassano; the entire atmosphere filled with historic and poetic
+associations. How the poet mirrored the panorama in his stanzas:
+
+  "How many a year, my Asolo,
+    Since--one step just from sea to land--
+  I found you, loved yet feared you so--
+    For natural objects seemed to stand
+  Palpably fire-clothed! No--"
+
+The "lambent flame," and "Italia's rare, o'er-running beauty," enchanted
+his vision.
+
+Returning from their saunterings, the brother and sister took up their
+morning reading of English and French newspapers, Italian books, with the
+poet's interludes always of his beloved Greek dramatists.
+
+In these October days the Storys arrived to visit Mrs. Bronson in her
+picturesque abode. An ancient wall, mostly in ruins, with eighteen towers,
+still surrounds Asolo, and partly in one of these towers, and partly in
+the arch of the old portal, "La Mura" was half discovered and half
+constructed. Its loggia had one wall composed entirely of sliding glass,
+which could be a shelter from the storm with no obstruction of the view,
+or be thrown open to all the bloom and beauty of the radiant summer. Just
+across the street was the apartment in which Mrs. Bronson bestowed her
+guests.
+
+That Browning and Story should thus be brought together again for their
+last meeting on earth, however undreamed of to them, prefigures itself now
+as another of those mosaic-like events that combined in beauty and
+loveliness to make all his last months on earth a poetic sequence. The
+Storys afterward spoke of Mr. Browning as being "well, and in such force,
+brilliant, and delightful as ever"; and the last words that passed between
+the poet and the sculptor were these of Browning's: "We have been friends
+for forty years, forty years without a break!"
+
+On the first day of November this perfect and final visit to Asolo ended,
+and yielding to the entreaties of his son, Browning and his sister bade
+farewell to Mrs. Bronson and her daughter, who were soon to follow them to
+Venice, where the poet and Miss Browning were to be the guests of the
+Barrett Brownings in Palazzo Rezzonico.
+
+The events of all these weeks seem divinely appointed to complete with
+stately symmetry this noble life. As one of them he found in Venice his
+old friend, and (as has before been said) the greatest interpreter of his
+poetry, Dr. Hiram Corson. The Cornell professor was taking his University
+Sabbatical year, and with Mrs. Corson had arrived in Venice just before
+the poet came down from Asolo. "I called on him the next day," Dr. Corson
+said of this meeting. "He seemed in his usual vigor, and expressed great
+pleasure in the restorations his son was making in the palace. 'It's a
+grand edifice,' he said, 'but too vast.'"
+
+Dr. Corson continued:
+
+    "He was then engaged in reading the proofs of his 'Asolando.' He
+    usually walked two hours every day; went frequently in his gondola
+    with his sister to his beloved Lido, and one day when I walked with
+    him
+
+      'Where St. Mark's is, where the Doges used to wed the sea with
+          rings,'
+
+    I had to quicken my steps to keep pace with him. He called my
+    attention to an interesting feature of this world-renowned place, and
+    told me much of their strange history. He knew the city literally _par
+    coeur_."
+
+
+[Illustration: PROFESSOR HIRAM CORSON
+
+From a painting by J. Colin Forbes, R.A., in the possession of Eugene
+Rollin Corson.]
+
+
+Mr. Browning passed with Dr. and Mrs. Corson the last morning they were in
+Venice. Of the parting Dr. Corson has since written in a personal letter
+to a friend:
+
+    "He told us much about himself; about Asolo, which he had first
+    visited more than fifty years before, during his visit to Italy in
+    1838, when, as he says in the Prologue to 'Asolando,' alluding to 'the
+    burning bush,'
+
+               'Natural objects seemed to stand
+      Palpably fire-clothed.'
+
+
+    "A servant announcing that the gondola had come to take us to the
+    railway station, he rose from his chair, and said, 'Now be sure to
+    visit me next May, in London. You'll remember where my little house is
+    in De Vere Gardens'; and bidding us a cordial good-bye, with a 'God
+    bless you both,' he hastened away. We little thought, full of life as
+    he then was, that we should see him no more in this world."
+
+
+To a letter from Miss Browning to their hostess, Browning added:
+
+    DEAREST MRS. BRONSON,--I am away from you in one sense, never to be
+    away from the thought of you, and your inexpressible kindness. I trust
+    you will see your way to returning soon. Venice is not herself without
+    you, in my eyes--I dare say this is a customary phrase, but you well
+    know what reason I have to use it, with a freshness as if it were
+    inspired for the first time. Come, bringing news of Edith, and the
+    doings in the house, and above all of your own health and spirits and
+    so rejoice
+
+    Ever your affectionate
+
+    ROBERT BROWNING.
+
+
+With another letter of his sister's to their beloved friend and hostess,
+Mr. Browning sent the following note,--perhaps the last lines that he ever
+wrote to Mrs. Bronson, as she returned almost immediately to Casa Alvisi,
+and the daily personal intercourse renewed itself to be broken only by
+his illness and death. The poet wrote:
+
+    PALAZZO REZZONICO, Nov. 5th, 1889.
+
+    DEAREST FRIEND,--A word to slip into the letter of Sarianna, which I
+    cannot see go without a scrap of mine. (Come and see Pen and you will
+    easily concert things with him.) I have all confidence in his
+    knowledge and power.
+
+    I delight in hearing how comfortably all is proceeding with you at La
+    Mura. I want to say that having finished the first two volumes of
+    Gozzi, I brought the third with me to finish at my leisure and return
+    to you; and particularly I may mention that the edition is very rare
+    and valuable. It appears that Symmonds has just thought it worth while
+    to translate the work, and he was six months finding a copy to
+    translate from!
+
+    ... I have got--since three or four days--the whole of my new volume
+    in type, and expect to send it back, corrected, by to-morrow at
+    latest. But I must continue at my work lest interruptions occur, so,
+    bless you and good-bye in the truest sense, dear one!
+
+    Ever Your Affectionately
+
+    ROBERT BROWNING.
+
+
+The "new volume in type" to which he referred was his collection entitled
+"Asolando," all of which, with the exception of one poem, had been written
+within the last two years of his life.
+
+Mr. Barrett Browning relates that while his father was reading aloud these
+last proofs to himself and his wife, the poet paused over the "Epilogue,"
+at the stanza--
+
+  "One who never turned his back but marched breast forward,
+    Never doubted clouds would break,
+  Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph,
+  Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
+                 Sleep to wake."
+
+and remarked: "It almost seems like praising myself to say this, and yet
+it is true, the simple truth, and so I shall not cancel it."
+
+November, often lovely in Venice, was singularly summer-like that year. On
+one day Mr. Browning found the heat on the Lido "scarcely endurable,"
+indeed, but "snow-tipped Alps" revealed themselves in the distance,
+offering a strange contrast to the brilliant sunshine and the soft blue
+skies. Still November is not June, after all, however perfect the
+imitation of some of its days. One day there was a heavy fog on his
+favorite Lido, and the poet, who refused to be deprived of his walk,
+became thoroughly chilled and illness followed. The following note from
+Mr. Barrett Browning to Mrs. Bronson indicates the anxiety that prevailed
+in Palazzo Rezzonico, where the tenderest care of his son and
+daughter-in-law ministered to the poet. The note is undated, save by the
+day of the week.
+
+    PALAZZO REZZONICO,
+
+    9 o'clock, Monday Evening.
+
+    DEAREST MRS. BRONSON,--The improvement of last night is scarcely
+    maintained this morning,--the action of the heart being weaker at
+    moments. He is quite clear-headed, and is never tired of saving he
+    feels better, "immensely better,--I don't suppose I could get up and
+    walk about, in fact I know I could not, but I have no aches or
+    pains,--quite comfortable, could not be more so,"--this is what he
+    said a moment ago.
+
+    I will let you know if there is any change as the day goes on.
+
+    My love to you.
+
+  Yours,       PEN.
+
+
+The delightful relations that had always prevailed between the poet and
+his publishers were touchingly completed when, just before he breathed his
+last, came a telegram from George Murray Smith with its tidings of the
+interest with which "Asolando" was being received in England. And then
+this little note written on that memorable date of December 12, 1889, from
+Barrett Browning to Mrs. Bronson, tells the story of the poet's entrance
+on the new life.
+
+    PALAZZO REZZONICO,
+
+    10.30 P.M.
+
+    DEAREST FRIEND,--Our Beloved breathed his last as San Marco's clock
+    struck ten,--without pain--unconsciously.
+
+    I was able to make him happy a little before he became unconscious by
+    a telegram from Smith saying, "Reviews in all this day's papers most
+    favorable, edition nearly exhausted."
+
+    He just murmured, "How gratifying."
+
+    Those were his last intelligible words.
+
+    Yours,      PEN.
+
+
+In that hour how could the son and the daughter who so loved him remember
+aught save the exquisite lines with which the poet had anticipated the
+reunion with his "Lyric Love":
+
+       "Then a light, then thy breast,
+  O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again,
+       And with God be the rest!"
+
+
+In the grand _sala_ with its floor of black Italian marble and its lofty
+ceiling with exquisite fresco decoration, the simple and impressive
+service was held in Palazzo Rezzonico, and a fleet of gondolas, filled
+with friends and accompanied by the entire Venetian Syndic, bore the
+casket to its temporary resting-place in the chapel of San Michele, in the
+campo santo. The gondola that carried the casket had an angel, carved in
+wood, at the prow, and a lion at the stern. Dean Bradley, on behalf of
+Westminster Abbey, had telegraphed to Robert Barrett Browning, asking that
+the body of the poet might be laid within those honored walls; and as the
+cemetery in Florence wherein is Mrs. Browning's tomb had long been closed,
+this honor from England was accepted. The same honor of a final
+resting-place in Westminster Abbey was also extended for the removal of
+the body of Mrs. Browning, but their son rightly felt that he must yield
+to the wishes of Florence that her tomb be undisturbed, and it is
+fitting that it should remain in the Italy she so loved.
+
+
+[Illustration: PALAZZO REZZONICO, VENICE
+
+Owned by Robert Browning from 1888 to 1906. In the upper room, at the
+left-hand corner, the poet died.]
+
+
+So associated with her brother's life was Miss Sarianna Browning that the
+story would be incomplete not to add that she survived him many years,--a
+gracious and beloved presence. In the January following the poet's death,
+she said in a letter to Mrs. Bronson:
+
+    "I have already let a day pass without thanking you for the most
+    beautiful locket, which I love even more for your sake than his. I
+    shall always think of you, so good, so near, and so dearly loved by
+    him. All your watchfulness over our smallest comfort,--how he felt
+    it!... Bless you forever for all the joy you gave him at Asolo,--how
+    happy he was! And how you were entwined in all our plans for the happy
+    future we were to enjoy there! Think of him when you go back, as
+    loving the whole place, and yourself, the embodiment of its
+    sweetness."
+
+
+Miss Browning died in her nephew's home, La Torre All' Antella, near
+Florence, in the spring of 1903, in her ninetieth year.
+
+On the façade of the Palazzo Rezzonico the City of Venice placed this
+inscription to the memory of the poet:
+
+  A
+  ROBERTO BROWNING
+  MORTO IN QUESTO PALAZZO
+  IL 12 DICEMBRE, 1889
+  VENEZIA
+  POSE
+
+  "Open my heart and you will see
+  Graved inside of it,--'Italy'"
+
+
+It was on the last day of 1889 that the impressive rites were held in
+Westminster Abbey for Robert Browning. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the
+Dean of Windsor, an aid-de-camp representing Queen Victoria, Dean Bradley,
+the sub-dean, and many eminent canons, and Sir Frederick Bridge, of the
+Abbey choir, all were present among the officiating clergy. The casket
+under its purple pall, with a massive cross of violets, and wreaths of
+lilies-of-the valley, and white roses (Mrs. Browning's favorite flower),
+was followed by the honorary pall-bearers including Hallam Tennyson,
+representing the Poet Laureate (whose health did not permit him to be
+present), Archdeacon Farrar, the Master of Balliol (representing Oxford),
+the Master of Trinity (representing Cambridge), Professor Masson
+(representing the University of Edinburgh), and George Murray Smith. The
+committal service was entirely choral, and Mrs. Browning's poem with its
+touching refrain,
+
+  "He giveth His beloved sleep!"
+
+was chanted by the full vested choir of the Abbey, to music composed for
+the occasion by Sir Frederick Bridge. Preceding the Benediction, the
+entire vast concourse of people united in singing the hymn,
+
+  "O God, our help in ages past!"
+
+
+As that great assemblage turned away from the last rites in commemoration
+of the poet who produced the largest body of poetry, and the most valuable
+as a spiritual message, of any English poet, was there not wafted in the
+air the choral strains from some unseen angelic choir, that thrilled the
+venerable Abbey with celestial triumph:
+
+  "'Glory to God--to God!' he saith:
+  Knowledge by suffering entereth,
+  And Life is perfected by Death."
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  Abinger, Lord, 18
+
+  "Abt Vogler," 205
+
+  "Andrea del Sarto," 152, 170
+
+  "Any Wife to Any Husband," 152
+
+  "Apprehension, An," 47
+
+  Arnold, Matthew, 112
+
+  Arnould, Joseph, friendship for Browning, 14, 39, 40, 129;
+    letters to Domett, 69, 94, 99, 103
+
+  Ashburton, Lady Louisa, 222
+
+  "Asolando," 5, 282, 292
+
+  "Aurora Leigh," 50, 52, 76, 127, 134, 143, 148, 158, 160, 164,
+      167, 171, 174-176, 210
+
+
+  "Balaustion's Adventure," 229
+
+  Barrett, Alfred, 16, 164
+
+  ----, Arabel, 16, 50, 129, 137, 164, 202, 212
+
+  ----, Edward (brother), 16, 22, 59;
+    death of, 18, 62, 135
+
+  ----, Edward (father) legal name, 17;
+    marriage, 18;
+    character, 20, 21, 121, 164;
+    death, 178
+
+  ----, Elizabeth. _See_ Moulton-Barrett, Elizabeth
+
+  ----, George, 16, 50
+
+  ----, Henrietta (Mrs. Surtees Cook), 16, 50;
+    marriage, 121;
+    affection for sister, 129;
+    137, 164, 192
+
+  ----, Mrs. (mother), 18, 21
+
+  "Battle of Marathon," 20
+
+  "Beatrice Signorini," 237, 267
+
+  "Bells and Pomegranates," 14, 39, 67, 68
+
+  "Ben Karshook's Wisdom," 158
+
+  Berdoe, Dr., commentary on "Paracelsus," 37
+
+  "Bertha in the Lane," 46, 71
+
+  "Bishop Blougram's Apology," 205
+
+  Blagden, Isabella, friendship with Brownings, 111, 112, 178, 182,
+      184, 190, 191, 197, 200, 201, 207, 225;
+    death, 229
+
+  Blessington, Lady, 33, 113, 138
+
+  "Blot in the 'Scutcheon, A," 69
+
+  "Book of the Poets, The," 64, 206
+
+  Boyd, Hugh Stuart, tutor, 22;
+    letters from Elizabeth Barrett, 25, 45, 53, 55, 63, 64, 68, 73, 89
+
+  Bronson, Mrs. Arthur (Katherine DeKay), friendship with Browning, 242,
+      273;
+    letters from Browning, 243, 248, 249, 252-260, 265, 271, 272, 277-286,
+      291, 292;
+    hospitality, 242, 274-276;
+    entertains Browning in Asolo, 286, 287, 290;
+    letters from Robert Barrett Browning, 293-294;
+    letter from Sarianna Browning, 295
+
+  Bronson, Edith (Contessa Rucellai), 275, 280
+
+  Brooks, Rev. Dr. Phillips, 211, 212
+
+  Browning, Mrs. (mother), 4-6, 38
+
+  ----, Elizabeth Barrett, birth, 16;
+    childhood, 17, 19;
+    ancestry, 17, 18;
+    first literary work, 20;
+    accident to, 21;
+    studies, 22;
+    tastes, 23, 24;
+    removal to Sidmouth, 24;
+    translation of "Prometheus Bound," 44;
+    removal to London, 45;
+    fugitive poems, 46-48, 53;
+    Hebrew Bible, 49;
+    definite periods in her life, 50;
+    change of residence, 54, 56;
+    notable friends, 58, 59;
+    publication of "The Seraphim," 56;
+    literary criticisms, 60, 61, 67, 68;
+    goes to Torquay, 59;
+    personal appearance, 58;
+    death of brother, 62;
+    returns to England, 63;
+    translations from Greek, 64;
+    description of her room, 65;
+    refusal to meet Browning, 65;
+    publication of two volumes of poems, 71;
+    literary reputation established, 71, 72;
+    first letter from Browning, 73, 74;
+    correspondence of poets, 74-89;
+    meets Browning, 80;
+    lyrics, 83, 84;
+    marriage, 87, 89;
+    will, 93;
+    lyrics, 100, 101;
+    mentioned for Laureateship, 121, 122;
+    books read by, 143;
+    genius for friendship, 148;
+    comment on dress, 151;
+    description of, 153, 179;
+    souvenir locket, 153;
+    views on life, 159;
+    appreciation of Tennyson, 166;
+    success of "Aurora Leigh," 174-176;
+    American appreciation, 187;
+    ill health, 193, 195;
+    closing days, 196;
+    last words, 197;
+    burial, 197;
+    tomb, 200;
+    tablet on Casa Guidi to her memory, 218, 264;
+    Tauchnitz edition of poems, 227
+
+  Browning, Reuben (uncle), 8
+
+  ----, Robert (father), character and qualities, 4-6;
+    removal to Paris, 132;
+    talent for caricature, 137;
+    death, 210
+
+  ----, Robert (grandfather), 4
+
+  ----, Robert, ancestry of, 4-6;
+    birth, 4;
+    childhood and early tastes, 6-8;
+    first literary work, 7;
+    home atmosphere, 10, 11;
+    school, 12;
+    influenced by Byron and Shelley, 13, 14;
+    juvenile verses, 14;
+    publication of "Pauline," 14;
+    visit to Russia, 27, 28;
+    meets Wordsworth, Landor, Dickens, and Leigh Hunt, 30, 32;
+    personal appearance, 31;
+    writes play for Macready, 33;
+    visit to Venice, 35, 36;
+    removal to Hatcham, 38;
+    English friends and social life, 38-41;
+    hears of Elizabeth Barrett, 41;
+    visit to Italy, 70, 71;
+    return to England, 71;
+    correspondence of the poets, 74-89;
+    first meeting with Miss Barrett, 80;
+    marriage, 87, 89;
+    sees "Sonnets from the Portuguese," 109;
+    lyrics, 120, 121, 152;
+    keynote of his art, 122-125;
+    interpretation of Shelley, 133, 134;
+    Fisher's portrait of, 153;
+    Page's portrait of, 155;
+    literary standing, 172;
+    finds "Old Yellow Book," 181;
+    homage to Landor, 183;
+    leaves Florence forever, 200;
+    returns to London, 200;
+    takes London house, 202;
+    literary work, 203-207;
+    extension of social activities, 206, 207;
+    friendship with Jowett, 209;
+    meeting with Tennyson, 210;
+    death of father, 210;
+    Oxford conferred degree of M.A., 211;
+    made Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, 211;
+    new six-volume edition of poems, 213;
+    dedication to Tennyson, 213;
+    success of "The Ring and the Book," 214-215;
+    comparison of character of Pompilia to that of his wife, 219;
+    visits Scotland with the Storys, 221-222;
+    conversation and personal charm, 222-224;
+    with Milsand in "Red Cotton Night-cap Country," 224-226;
+    prepares Tauchnitz edition of Mrs. Browning's poems, 227;
+    friendship with Domett, 228;
+    relations with Tennyson, 230-232;
+    facility for rhyming, 231;
+    visit to Oxford and Cambridge, 232;
+    sojourn at "La Saisiaz," 233-234;
+    revisits Italy, 235, 239-240;
+    doctrine of life, 237;
+    Oxford conferred degree of D.C.L., 241;
+    son's portrait of, 242;
+    friendship with Mrs. Bronson, 242;
+    gift from Browning Societies, 243;
+    letters to Mrs. Bronson, 243, 248, 249, 252-260, 265, 271, 272,
+      277-286, 291;
+    Italian recognition, 245;
+    honored at Edinburgh, 249;
+    letters to Professor Masson, 249, 250;
+    removal to DeVere Gardens, 260;
+    Foreign Correspondent to Royal Academy, 266;
+    poet of intensity, 270;
+    last year in London, 281;
+    return to Asolo, 287-288;
+    last meeting with the Storys and Dr. Corson, 289-290;
+    death, 294;
+    memorial inscription, 295;
+    burial, 295
+
+  Browning, Robert Barrett ("Penini"), birth, 107;
+    anecdotes of, 126, 139, 144, 146, 147, 155;
+    studies of, 171, 178, 180, 185, 188, 192, 193;
+    love of novels, 181;
+    enjoyment of Siena, 184;
+    children's party at French Embassy, 194;
+    preparation for University, 202;
+    characteristics, 202, 265;
+    explanation of "The Ring and the Book," 218;
+    begins study of painting, 227;
+    picture in Royal Academy, 227;
+    success in art, 236, 241;
+    marriage to Miss Coddington, 260;
+    purchase of Palazzo Rezzonico, 262;
+    portrait of father, 217, 242;
+    portrait of Milsand, 263;
+    purchase of Casa Guidi, 265;
+    Florentine villa, 264-265, 267
+
+  ----, Robert Jardine, 38
+
+  ----, Sarianna, 4, 38;
+    letter from Browning, 71;
+    letters from Mrs. Browning, 195;
+    goes to live with brother, 211;
+    letter to Domett, 228;
+    travels with brother, 236;
+    letters to Mrs. Bronson, 248, 293;
+    death, 295
+
+  Brownings, The, life in Paris, 92, 93;
+    finances, 93;
+    journey to Italy, 95;
+    winter in Pisa, 95, 97;
+    home in Florence, 97;
+    visit to Vallombrosa, 98, 99;
+    apartments in Casa Guidi, 100, 101;
+    trip to Fano, 103, 104;
+    literary work, 106;
+    meet Story, 107;
+    summer at Bagni di Lucca, 107;
+    Florentine friends and life, 111-113, 118, 119;
+    visit to Siena, 125;
+    return to England, 129;
+    life and friends in Paris, 130-137;
+    return to England, 137;
+    social life in London, 137-141;
+    return to Casa Guidi, 142;
+    summer at Bagni di Lucca, 144-151;
+    winter in Rome, 152-157;
+    "Clasped Hands," 153;
+    pilgrimage to Albano, 156;
+    return to Florence, 157;
+    poetic work, 158;
+    Italian appreciation, 161;
+    return to London, 164;
+    Tennyson reads "Maud" to them, 165;
+    winter and social life in Paris, 167-172;
+    return to Florence, 176;
+    Florentine gayety, 176, 178;
+    summer in Normandy, 179;
+    another winter in Rome, 180;
+    return to Florence, 181;
+    summer in Siena, 184-185;
+    in Florence again, 185;
+    Roman winter, 185, 188-189;
+    journey to Florence, 189-190;
+    last summer in Siena, 191-192;
+    last winter in Rome, 192-193;
+    return to Casa Guidi, 195;
+    memorials in Palazzo Rezzonico, 262
+
+  "Browning Society, The," 240
+
+  Browning, William Shergold, 38
+
+  Brunton, Rev. Wm., poem, 91
+
+  "By the Fire-side," 170
+
+
+  Carducci, Contessa, 71
+
+  Carlyle, Thomas and Jane, 30, 38, 39, 41, 61, 68, 97, 129, 130, 131
+
+  Casa Alvisi, 242, 243, 274
+
+  "Casa Guidi Windows," 106, 115, 116
+
+  "Catarina to Camoens," 71, 83
+
+  Chaucer, project to modernize, 603
+
+  "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," 152, 261
+
+  "Child's Grave at Florence, A," 121
+
+  Chorley, Henry, 39, 40, 147
+
+  "Christmas Eve and Easter Day," 110, 119, 123, 124, 125
+
+  "Christopher Smart," 237
+
+  Clarke, Mary Graham. _See_ Barrett, Mrs.
+
+  "Clasped Hands, The," 153
+
+  Coddington, Fanny, 260
+
+  "Colombe's Birthday," 27, 38, 143
+
+  "Comfort," 47
+
+  "Conclusion," 72
+
+  "Confessions," 46, 83, 84
+
+  Cook, Mrs. Surtees. _See_ Barrett, Henrietta
+
+  Corson, Dr. Hiram, criticism of Browning's poetry, 29, 218;
+    visit to Browning, 35, 222, 244, 245-247, 290-291;
+    founder of Browning Society, 240-241;
+    letters from Browning, 247, 259;
+    215
+
+  Cosimo I, statue of, 114
+
+  "Cowper's Grave," 46, 57
+
+  Coxhoe Hall, 16
+
+  Cranch, Christopher Pearse, 111
+
+  Crosse, Andrew, 58, 59
+
+  "Crowned and Wedded," 46
+
+  "Cry of the Children, The," 46
+
+  "Curse for a Nation, A," 186
+
+  Curtis, George William, 118, 119
+
+  Cushman, Charlotte, 40, 141
+
+
+  "Dead Pan, The," 47, 68, 83
+
+  "Deaf and Dumb," 205
+
+  "Death in the Desert, A," 205, 237
+
+  "Denial, A," 84
+
+  "De Profundis," 18, 52, 136
+
+  "Development," 5
+
+  Dickens, Charles, 30, 33, 59, 61, 69
+
+  Dilke, Mr., 64
+
+  Domett, Alfred, friendship for Browning, 14, 39, 228;
+    Browning's letters to, 42, 43;
+    Arnould's letters to, 69, 94, 99, 103
+
+  Dowden, Dr. Edward, 97, 133
+
+  Dowson, Christopher, 39
+
+  "Drama of Exile, A," 46, 71-72
+
+  "Dramatic Idyls," 236
+
+  "Dramatis Personæ," 203-205
+
+  "Dryope," statue of, 263
+
+  Dulwich Gallery, 11
+
+
+  Eastnor Castle, 22
+
+  Egerton-Smith, Miss, 233-234
+
+  Elgin, Lady, 131, 132, 167
+
+  Eliot, George, 190
+
+  "Englishman in Italy, The," 71
+
+  "Epistle of Karnish," 158
+
+  "Essay on Mind," 22
+
+  "Eurydice to Orpheus," 265
+
+  "Evelyn Hope," 120
+
+
+  "Face, A," 205
+
+  Faucit, Helen (Lady Martin), 70, 143
+
+  "Ferishtah's Fancies," 244
+
+  Field, Kate, Browning gives locket, 154;
+    visit to the Brownings, 182;
+    Browning's letters to, 183, 186, 208;
+    Mrs. Browning's letter to, 187
+
+  "Fifine," 237
+
+  "Flight of the Duchess, The," 80, 152
+
+  "Flute-Music," 267
+
+  Forster, John, criticism of "Paracelsus," 30;
+    friendship for Browning, 31, 32, 129;
+    33, 39, 69
+
+  Fox, Rev. William Johnson, 30, 140, 141
+
+  "Fra Lippo Lippi," 152, 169-170
+
+  Franceschini, tragedy of, 181
+
+  Fuller, Margaret. _See_ D'Ossoli, Marchesa
+
+  Furnivall, Dr., 240
+
+  "Futurity," 47
+
+
+  Garrow, Theodosia. _See_ Trollope
+
+  Giorgi, Signor, 217
+
+  "Gold Hair," 204
+
+  Gosse, Edmund, 97, 281
+
+  "Grammarian's Burial, A," 152
+
+  "Greek Christian Poets, The," 23, 65, 206
+
+  Griffin, Professor Hall, 27, 118, 134
+
+  "Guardian Angel, The," 103, 152
+
+  Gurney, Rev. Archer, 38
+
+
+  "Half Rome," 218
+
+  Haworth, Fanny, letter from Browning, 36;
+    40
+
+  Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 150, 178-179
+
+  "Hector in the Garden," 47
+
+  "Helen's Tower," 222
+
+  "Hervé Riel," 211
+
+  Hillard, George Stillman, 106, 118
+
+  Hodell, Dr. Charles W., 215-216
+
+  Holmes, Dr. Oliver Wendell, 48
+
+  "Holy Cross Day," 158
+
+  Hope End, 16, 19, 22, 24
+
+  Horne, Richard Hengist, letter from Elizabeth Barrett, 19, 59;
+    friendship with Miss Barrett, 30, 53, 60, 61, 62, 65, 68
+
+  Hosmer, Harriet, takes cast of "Clasped Hands," 153;
+    excursion with Brownings, 156, 157;
+    letter from Browning, 168;
+    visits poets, 191, 194
+
+  "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix," 35
+
+
+  "In a Balcony," 144, 158, 203
+
+  "In a Gondola," 36
+
+  "Inclusions," 84
+
+  "Incondita," 14, 140
+
+  "Inn Album," 232, 269
+
+  "Insufficiency," 47, 84
+
+  "In the Doorway," 207
+
+  "Isabel's Child," 46, 57
+
+  Italy, political conditions of, 105, 108, 115, 117, 121, 143, 180
+
+  "Ivan Ivanovitch," 27, 236
+
+
+  James, Henry, characterization of Browning, 224
+
+  "James Lee's Wife," 204, 261
+
+  Jameson, Mrs., friendship with Miss Barrett, 73, 92, 93, 94, 95,
+      96, 129;
+    letter from Browning, 108
+
+  Jerrold, Douglas, 41
+
+  Jowett, Dr., 209, 229, 281
+
+
+  Kemble, Mrs. Fanny, 129, 138, 153, 154, 155
+
+  Kenyon, John, 33;
+    meets Browning, 40;
+    offers an introduction to Miss Barrett, 41;
+    45;
+    visit to Rydal Mount, 56;
+    account of, 58, 59;
+    termed the "joy-giver," 65;
+    shows manuscript of "Dead Pan" to Browning, 68;
+    dedication of "Paracelsus" to, 69;
+    appreciation of, 74;
+    letters to the Brownings, 74, 97;
+    friendship, 112, 113, 129, 137;
+    dedication of "Aurora Leigh" to, 174;
+    death and legacy to Brownings, 176
+
+  Kingsley, Charles, 139
+
+  King Victor and King Charles, 69
+
+  Kinney, Mrs., 144, 145
+
+
+  "Lady and the Painter, The," 288
+
+  "Lady Geraldine's Courtship," 71, 72, 73
+
+  "Lament for Adonis," 23
+
+  Landor, Walter Savage, chirography of, 23;
+    meets Browning, 30;
+    courtesy of, 32;
+    meets Miss Barrett, 55, 59, 137;
+    quoted, 60;
+    intimacy with Leigh Hunt, 112, 113;
+    opinions, 138;
+    guest of Brownings, 182;
+    homage from Browning, 183;
+    guest of Storys, 183, 184, 190, 192
+
+  "La Saisiaz," 233-234
+
+  "Last Poems," 202
+
+  "La Torre all' Antella," 264, 295
+
+  "La Vallière," 33
+
+  Leighton, Sir Frederic, 200
+
+  "Les Charmettes," 238
+
+  "Lost Leader, The," 32
+
+  "Loved Once," 83, 84
+
+  Lowell, James Russell, 51, 74
+
+  "Luria," 69
+
+  Lytton, Bulwer, 33, 53, 60
+
+  ----, Lord (Owen Meredith), 142;
+    entertains Mrs. Browning, 145-146;
+    visits the Brownings, 149, 150, 158
+
+
+  Macready, William, meeting with Browning, 30, 31;
+    suggests playwriting to Browning, 32;
+    sees "Strafford," 33;
+    produces "Strafford," 34;
+    dinner to Browning, 39;
+    produces "A Blot in the 'Scutcheon," 69, 70
+
+  Marcello, Contessa, 276
+
+  Martineau, Harriet, friendship with Brownings, 33, 35, 39, 60, 62, 68
+
+  Masson, Professor, Browning entertained by, 249-251
+
+  Mazzini, 13, 143
+
+  Medici, Marchesa Peruzzi di, birthday fête, 184;
+    reminiscences of, 188, 193;
+    visit to Scotland, 221;
+    villa of, 239;
+    translation of Duprè's Autobiography, 257;
+    Browning's letter to, 257;
+    Florentine palace of, 265
+
+  Medici, statue of Fernandino di, 173
+
+  "Meeting at Night," 120
+
+  "Men and Women," 106, 157, 164, 169, 172
+
+  Millais, Lady, 240
+
+  ----, Sir John Everett, Browning's letter to, 227-228;
+     251
+
+  Milnes, Monckton (Lord Houghton), 30, 60, 61, 138;
+    christening party, 139
+
+  Milsand, Joseph, meeting with Browning, 134;
+    paper on Browning, 135;
+    letter from Browning, 152, 225;
+    friendship with Brownings, 159, 224, 225, 226;
+    criticism of "Aurora Leigh," 176;
+    death, 259;
+    portrait, 263
+
+  Mitford, Mary Russell, 32;
+    association with the Brownings, 32, 45, 55, 56, 58, 61, 65, 72;
+    letter from Mrs. Browning, 108, 118, 135, 136, 159;
+    death, 173
+
+  Mohl, Mme., 132, 167, 171
+
+  Moore, Mrs. Bloomfield, 252
+
+  Moulton-Barrett, Elizabeth (niece), 18
+
+  ----. _See_ Barrett, explanation of name, 17
+
+
+  Nancioni, il Signor Dottore, 245
+
+  Nettleship, Mr., essays on Browning, 213
+
+  "New Spirit of the Age, The," 60, 68
+
+  Nightingale, Florence, 140
+
+
+  "Old Yellow Book, The," 215
+
+  "One Word More," 123, 168-169, 205
+
+  Ongaro, Dall', 194
+
+  "Only a Cure," 121
+
+  Ossoli, Marchesa d' (Margaret Fuller), 111, 112;
+    visits the Brownings, 118;
+    death, 112, 126
+
+  "Other Half Rome, The," 218
+
+
+  "Pacchiarotto," 232
+
+  Page, William, 152, 155, 181
+
+  Palazzo Giustiniani, 242
+
+  ---- Peruzzi, 265
+
+  ---- Pitti, 102, 105, 106
+
+  ---- Rezzonico, 262-264, 290, 293, 295
+
+  "Paracelsus," 14, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 36, 37, 39, 57, 69, 168, 237
+
+  "Parleyings," 269
+
+  "Parting at Morning," 120
+
+  Patmore, Coventry, 140
+
+  "Pauline," 12, 14, 15, 28, 34, 57, 169, 172, 267
+
+  "Penini." _See_ Browning, Robert Barrett
+
+  "Pippa Passes," 36, 65, 67, 69, 271, 286-287
+
+  Pius IX (Pio Nono), 105, 115, 117, 118, 121
+
+  Poe, Edgar Allan, 52
+
+  "Poems before Congress," 185
+
+  "Poet's Vow, The," 53, 55, 57
+
+  "Pompilia," 206, 218, 219
+
+  "Portrait, A," 18, 164
+
+  Powers, Hiram, 102, 112, 118, 142
+
+  Prince of Wales (Edward VII), 180-181
+
+  Proctor ("Barry Cornwall"), 30, 33, 40, 61, 69, 129
+
+  "Prometheus Bound," 23, 25, 44
+
+  "Proof and Disproof," 84
+
+  "Prospice," 123, 205
+
+
+  "Question and Answer," 84
+
+
+  "Rabbi Ben Ezra," 205
+
+  "Recollections of a Literary Life," 135
+
+  "Red Cotton Night-cap Country," 226, 230
+
+  "Return of the Druses, The," 69
+
+  "Rhapsody of Life's Progress, A," 47, 48, 83
+
+  "Rhyme of the Duchess May, The," 227
+
+  "Ring and the Book, The," 182, 203, 205, 214-220
+
+  Ripert-Monclar, Marquis Amédée de, 28, 38, 153
+
+  Ritchie, Lady, 153, 154, 226
+
+  Robertson, John, 35, 39
+
+  Rogers, Arthur, 273
+
+  "Romances and Lyrics," 67
+
+  "Romaunt of Margret, The," 53, 58
+
+  "Rosny," 267
+
+  Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 139, 165, 166, 169, 174
+
+
+  Sand, George, 131, 136
+
+  "Saul," 120, 157
+
+  Scotti, Signor, 71
+
+  "Seraphim, The," 46, 56, 58, 110
+
+  Sharp, William, quoted, 6;
+    suggested origin of "Flight of the Duchess," 12;
+    quoted, 28;
+    description of Browning, 31;
+    43
+
+  Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 13, 133, 134
+
+  Silverthorne, Mrs., 14
+
+  "Sleep, The," 46, 83
+
+  Smith, Alexander, 151
+
+  Smith, George Murray, 247, 270, 296
+
+  "Sonnets from the Portuguese," 50, 71, 97, 108, 109, 110, 123, 168
+
+  "Sordello," 14, 27, 28, 35, 41-42, 69, 171, 207, 237
+
+  "Soul's Tragedy, A," 69
+
+  "Statue and the Bust, The," 152, 173
+
+  Stedman, Edmund Clarence, 90
+
+  Story, Edith. _See_ Medici, Marchessa Peruzzi di
+
+  ----, William Wetmore and Emeline, Browning's first meeting, 107, 111;
+    characteristics, 118, 119;
+    associations with the Brownings, 148-152, 155, 184, 185, 192, 196,
+      197, 199, 221, 239;
+    entertain Landor, 183;
+    characterization of Hawthorne, 150;
+    last meeting with Browning, 289-290
+
+  "Strafford," 33, 34, 35, 57
+
+
+  Talfourd, Field, 39
+
+  Talfourd, Sergeant, 30, 32, 40, 60, 69
+
+  Taylor, Bayard, 129
+
+  Tennyson, Alfred, 15;
+    comment on "Sordello," 41;
+    60;
+    works, 56, 68;
+    Miss Barrett's comments on, 61, 67, 120;
+    becomes Laureate, 122;
+    letter to Mrs. Browning, 139, 140;
+    reads "Maud" to the poets, 165;
+    letters from Browning, 209, 230, 284;
+    friendship with Browning, 231;
+    dedication, 213;
+    regarding Browning's lines, 232
+
+  ----, Frederick, 144, 158
+
+  ----, Hallam, 296
+
+  "Tertium Quid," 218
+
+  Thackeray, Anne. _See_ Ritchie, Lady
+
+  Ticknor and Fields, 156
+
+  Tittle, Margaret, 4
+
+  "Toccata of Galuppi's, A," 120
+
+  Trollope, Thomas Adolphus and Theodosia, 59, 111, 112, 190, 229
+
+  "Two Poets of Croisic," 236
+
+
+  "Valediction, A," 84
+
+  Vallombrosa, 98, 99
+
+  Villari, Mme. Pasquale, 112
+
+  "Virgin Mary to the Child Jesus, The," 46
+
+  "Vision of Poets, A," 71
+
+
+  Wiedemann, Sarah Anna, 4-6
+
+  "Wine of Cyprus," 23, 86
+
+  "Woman's Last Word, A," 120
+
+  Wordsworth, William, 30, 32, 55, 56, 59, 68, 94
+
+
+  Zampini, Fanny (Contessa Salazar), 161
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+[1] Letters of Robert Browning and Alfred Domett. New York: Dodd, Mead and
+Co.
+
+[2] Life of Robert Browning. London: Walter Scott, Limited.
+
+[3] La Vie et l'oeuvre de Elizabeth Browning, par Germaine-Marie
+Merlette; Licencie des lettres; Docteur de l'Université de Paris.
+
+[4] Red Letter Days of my Life. London: Richard Bentley and Son.
+
+[5] "Letters of Robert Browning and Alfred Domett." New York: Dodd, Mead,
+and Company.
+
+[6] Robert Browning: Life and Letters. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, and
+Company.
+
+[7] "La Vita e le Opere di Roberto et Elisabetta Barrett Browning. Rome:
+Societa Typografico-Editrice Nazionale."
+
+[8] William Wetmore Story and his Friends. Boston: The Houghton-Mifflin
+Co.
+
+[9] Life and Letters of Benjamin Jowett. London: John Murray.
+
+[10] Alfred Lord Tennyson. London and New York: The Macmillan Co.
+
+[11] Life of Phillips Brooks. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co.
+
+[12] Records of Tennyson, Ruskin, and Browning. London: The Macmillan
+Company.
+
+[13] Life and Letters of Sir John Millais. London: Methuen and Co.
+
+[14] What I Remember. New York: Harper and Brothers.
+
+[15] Alfred Lord Tennyson. London and New York: The Macmillan Company.
+
+[16] William Wetmore Story. Boston: The Houghton-Mifflin Company.
+
+[17] Alfred Lord Tennyson. London and New York: The Macmillan Co.
+
+
+
+
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Text in italics is enclosed between underscores (_italics_).
+
+Additional spacing after some of the quotes is intentional to indicate
+both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph as
+presented in the original text.
+
+Images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the closest
+paragraph break.
+
+The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these
+letters have been replaced with transliterations.
+
+The following misprints have been corrected:
+  "bythe" to "by the" (page 39)
+  "twentienth" to "twentieth" (page 142)
+  "Personae" corrected to "Personæ" (page 203)
+  "to to" corrected to "to" (page 214)
+  "Personae" corrected to "Personæ" (page 232)
+  "writen" corrected to "written" (page 272)
+  "Edinburg" corrected to "Edinburgh" (index)
+  "Fireside" corrected to "Fire-side" (index)
+
+
+Some quotes are opened with marks but are not closed. Obvious errors
+have been silently closed, while those requiring interpretation have
+been left open.
+
+Other than the corrections listed above, printer's inconsistencies in
+spelling, punctuation, hyphenation, and ligature usage have been retained.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BROWNINGS***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 30671-8.txt or 30671-8.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/0/6/7/30671
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+